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# 2023-09-07 - The Gentle Art of Tramping by Stephen Graham | |
I found this book in the Gutenberg new books feed. I am curious | |
about the practical aspects of living outdoors, such as how to deal | |
with prolonged precipitation. This book is about half pragmatic | |
suggestions and half poetic philosophy. I felt delighted to discover | |
this better half and recognized a kindred spirit in the author. I | |
found his biography, which was published in 2014, and would like to | |
read it some day. | |
Beyond Holy Russia: The Life and Times of Stephen Graham | |
Below are interesting excerpts from the book. | |
* * * | |
It is a gentle art; know how to tramp and you know how to live. | |
Manners makyth man, and tramping makyth manners. Know how to meet | |
your fellow wanderer, how to be passive to the beauty of Nature and | |
how to be active to its wildness and its rigor. Tramping brings one | |
to reality. | |
If you would have a portrait of [a human being]... most fittingly | |
you will show [them] with staff in hand and burden on [their] | |
shoulders, striving onward from light to darkness upon an upward | |
road, shading [their] eyes with [their] hand as [they seek their] | |
way. You will show a figure something like that posthumous picture of | |
Tolstoy, called "Tolstoy pilgrimaging toward eternity." | |
So when you put on your old clothes and take to the road, you make at | |
least a right gesture. You get into your right place in the world in | |
the right way. Even if your tramping expedition is a mere jest, a | |
jaunt, a spree, you are apt to feel the benefits of getting into a | |
right relation toward God, Nature, and your fellow... You get into | |
an air that is refreshing and free. You liberate yourself from the | |
tacit assumption of your everyday life. | |
The tramp is a friend of society; [they are] a seeker, [they pay | |
their] way if [they] can. One includes in the category "tramp" all | |
true Bohemians, pilgrims, explorers afoot, walking tourists, and the | |
like. ... There is much to learn, there are illusions to be overcome. | |
There are prejudices and habits to be shaken off. | |
First of all there is the physical side: you need to study equipment, | |
care of health, how to sleep out of doors, what to eat... These | |
things you teach yourself. For the rest Nature becomes your teacher, | |
and from her you will learn what is beautiful and who you are and | |
what is your special quest in life and whither you should go. You | |
relax in the presence of the great healer and teacher, you turn your | |
back on civilization and most of what you learned in schools... | |
# Chapter 4: Clothes | |
The privilege of the Court Fool is that [they] can tell the plain | |
ordinary truth to the King, even with the executioner standing by, ax | |
in hand, and risk not [their] head. But [they] must be wearing | |
[their] cap and bells. Let [them] come but dressed as a courtier and | |
make the same painful jest, and the [executioner] will step forth to | |
relieve [them of their] poor-quality thinking piece. | |
Class is the most disgusting institution of civilization, because it | |
puts barriers between [individuals]. The [person] from the | |
first-class cabin cannot make [theirself] at home in the steerage. | |
[They] can have conversations with [their] fellow ... down there, but | |
the fellow ... will be standing to attention like private in presence | |
of officer, or standing defiant like prisoner in presence of a | |
condemnatory court. It is not the fault of the bottom dog, the | |
proletarian. [They scent] a manner. Your bearing cannot be adjusted | |
to equality. You are not on the level with [them]. You cannot rid | |
your voice of its kind note. [In other words, you cannot easily | |
give up your privilege.] | |
But in the tramps' motley you can say what you like, ask what | |
questions you like, free from the taint of class. | |
It also puts you right with regard to yourself. You see yourself as | |
others see you, and that is a refreshing grace wafted in upon an | |
opinionated mind. The freedom of speech and action and judgment which | |
it gives you will breed that boldness of bearing which, after all, is | |
better than mere good manners. | |
# Chapter 5: Carrying Money | |
The less [money] you carry the more you will see, the less you spend | |
the more you will experience. | |
Tramping is first of all a rebellion against housekeeping and daily | |
and monthly accounts. You may escape from the spending mania, but | |
first of all you escape from the inhibition, that is the word, the | |
inhibition of needing to earn a living. In tramping you are not | |
earning a living, but earning a happiness. | |
# Chapter 6: The Companion | |
An ideal companion is ideal. However, we all know that companionship | |
prolonged may be trying even to good friends. If you live for some | |
time in the same room with any one you discover that fact. | |
But there is perhaps no greater test of friendship than going on a | |
long tramp. You discover to one another all the egoisms and | |
selfishnesses you possess. You may not see your own: you see your | |
companion's faults. In truth, if you want to find out about a | |
[person], go for a long tramp with [them]. | |
If you do not quarrel irreparably and part on the road you will | |
probably find your friendship greatly increased by the experience of | |
the wilds together. | |
The richest people in life are the good listeners. If, however, you | |
also must talk, must reveal your life, your heart, your prejudices | |
and passions, it will often happen that you will express yourself to | |
yourself, as much as to your friend. Self-confession is growth of the | |
mind, an enriching of the consciousness. In talk which seems idle | |
enough you may be reaching out toward the infinite. | |
The best companions are those who make you freest. They teach you the | |
art of life by their readiness to accommodate themselves. | |
Of course, one should carry a notebook or diary or some | |
broad-margined volume of poems. ... you are enriching yourself | |
enormously by what you can write about. | |
It is an ideal way to begin life. For tramping is the grammar of | |
living. Few people learn the grammar--but it is worth while. | |
On the road the weak and strong points of character are revealed. | |
The road shows sturdiness, resourcefulness, pluck, patience, energy, | |
vitality, or per contra, the lack of these things. | |
# Chapter 8: The Art of Idleness | |
The virtue to be envied in tramping is that of being able to live by | |
the way. In that indeed does the gentle art of tramping consist. If | |
you do not live by the way, there is nothing gentle about it. ... | |
Life is like a road; you hurry, and the end of it is grave. There is | |
no grand crescendo from hour to hour, day to day, year to year; | |
life's quality is in moments, not in distance run. | |
You can enter a wider family if you are gentle. | |
Pan is indeed more truly our god than Diana. ... We will keep company | |
with wood nymphs and satyrs, and will help to turn the animals | |
another way when we hear Diana's horn resounding in the forest. She | |
shall go on and find the world a wilderness in front of her--the | |
living and the loving all slipping behind. | |
Nature unfolds herself slowly like a snail if you are still in front | |
of her. You cannot know what you are walking over till you cease | |
walking. [Be here now.] | |
It means a change in the condition of passivity. You are at home to | |
fairies and fancies and to the spider of happiness who spins golden | |
webs. It is a fallacy to think that during the siesta you do not | |
tramp; you are tramping, wandering in unknown parts, exploring the | |
primitive, opening doors, making new connections with the great unity | |
of which you have been a nonconscious part. | |
You look upon your companion still sleeping--did you ever look upon | |
your friend asleep--not in a bed in a hotel, or on a red sofa after | |
dinner, or in the dim corner of a jolting train--but in Nature's | |
house? There you will feel [them] nearer, more of a friend, more | |
kindred. The same wood sprites have hopped on you both while you | |
slumbered and dreamed. | |
Things happen hors de programme which we could never put into our | |
program. That is why programs of coming life should be of the most | |
general character, none of that "to-day I brew, to-morrow I bake" | |
type of miscalculation. "To-day I do not know what I shall do; | |
to-morrow I know less" is better. | |
You will discern that going tramping is at first an act of rebellion; | |
only afterwards do you get free from rebelliousness as Nature | |
sweetens your mind. ... The worship of time as a reality is such a | |
powerful superstition that the mind returns to it often after it has | |
got free. | |
# Chapter 9: Emblems of Tramping | |
There is the narrow way of the Puritans, a passage between walls of | |
righteousness; there is the broad way of the epicureans, so broad | |
they mistake the breadth for the length and lose themselves on it. | |
But, broad or narrow, the road seems inadequate as an emblem of the | |
tramping life. There shall be roads in our life but our life shall | |
not be always in roads. | |
Even the crookedest road is sometimes too straight. You learn that it | |
is artificial, that originally it was not made for mere tramping. | |
Roads were made for armies and then for slaves and laborers, and for | |
"transport." Few have been made for pleasure. | |
The road suggests God as a taskmaster who would have us work; the | |
river suggests [God] as a poet who would have us live in poetry. | |
When we wash in the stream we are washing ourselves with life. When | |
we swim in the stream, especially against the stream, we are joying | |
the heart of an unseen Mother who takes pride in us all, knowing | |
that, although we must at last flow out with the stream, we can | |
triumph over it for moments. | |
The starry sky is the emblem of home, the highest roof in the | |
universe. The sun is the mind, by whose light [humanity] seeks | |
[their] way; the moon is the reflection of the mind on the heart, and | |
is the emblem of melancholy and poetry. | |
# Chapter 12: The Dip | |
Coldness of the water is a prejudice. The coldest dip in the sea is | |
easier to take than the ordinary cold bath in a cramped bathroom. The | |
immediate activity of the body conquers the cold. In a bathroom most | |
people have to be painfully passive. | |
You scoop a coffeepot full of water from the same pool wherein you | |
bathe. You see the coffeepot standing on the bank like a faithful | |
bird awaiting your return from the water. Mother-naked, you plunge | |
and strive and indulge in various forms of joyous excess. The gray | |
dawn sky above is gentle as loving eyes. The blue smoke of your fire | |
has lost itself and plays with the morning air as you do with the | |
water. | |
After that, still dripping, you carry the coffeepot to the fire. You | |
dry as you walk. | |
The next item in the program may be the morning wash. You can wash | |
out a shirt, a pair of socks, a towel, the sugar bag, what you will, | |
and dry them as the morning sun warms up. This is a necessary matter | |
now and then. | |
But it is not only at dawn that one bathes. Any good stream or pool | |
at any time is a good pretext for a dip. | |
The evening swim, too, is a pleasure, taking the tiredness out of | |
your limbs and adding to the happiness of your relaxation when, | |
later, you lie with your blanket over you under the stars. | |
The spirit of the water has found place in the bosom of the | |
wanderer. | |
# Chapter 14: Marching Songs | |
[Humanity] is a singing animal, but civilization has silenced many | |
songs. | |
We so dislike random singing that we pay street musicians--to go away, | |
and they have learned that bad singing brings more coppers than their | |
better efforts. | |
Light-heartedness begets song. We sing as we walk, we walk as we | |
sing, and the kilometers fall behind. After a long spell of the | |
forced habit of not singing one finds oneself accidentally singing, | |
and there is surprise. | |
A slightly different temperament achieves the same happiness reciting | |
poetry... Songs heard are sweet, but the unheard may be sweeter. | |
# Chapter 15: Scrounging | |
One might call it by a better name; it means getting a meal for | |
nothing when you can. A good deal depends on your appearance. | |
One should endeavor to give something in return--not money--where | |
hospitality has been found, and so help to restore a good thing in | |
the world. | |
By one's manners, by one's talk, by a little memento or token here | |
and there, one pays for hospitality received. In return for | |
hospitality of the body--food or lodging, one should always give | |
hospitality of the mind or spirit, sympathy, fellow feeling, | |
bonhomie, a readiness to be at the disposal of your host. | |
The best fun is, however, amid the wild fruit, the berries, the | |
grapes, the plums. One lives on the kindly fruits of the earth. You | |
come on a hillside rusty-brown with little strawberries, and only the | |
birds to share them with you. One spends hours grazing on | |
strawberries. Wild grapes, too, one eats with the mouth from the vine | |
without picking them. | |
# Chapter 16: Seeking Shelter | |
You find, however, that it is more cold in a ruined or empty house | |
than in the open. The less ruined the house, the more cold. ... The | |
best place is to open the front or the back door and lie down to | |
sleep on the threshold, looking out upon the free spacious | |
rain-drenched open-air world. | |
# Chapter 17: The Open | |
The tramping life is not in caves and huts and holes and inns, but in | |
the open. The life opens us with its very breadth. It is not the air | |
alone that cures and fills, but what you breathe in with the air. You | |
breathe in the spirit of the open. You breathe in the wideness of the | |
sky; you reach out to the free horizon. It makes a [person] big, it | |
builds a [person from] within. | |
# Chapter 18: Tramp As Cook | |
[The author writes that when cooking, it is important to begin with | |
love!] | |
I feel this is also true of the most of cooking. You must bring a | |
loving heart to the primus or the camp fire. No soured personality | |
can be trusted to stir the beans, far less make the coffee. I have | |
not examined the psychology of good cooks, but I imagine few of them | |
are bitter, few of them are egoists. | |
# Chapter 20: Books | |
The tramp's library is limited, for books are heavy. It is best to | |
tramp with one book only. But it is a missed opportunity not to have | |
one book. For you can gain an intimacy with a book and an author in | |
that way, which it is difficult to obtain in a library or in the | |
midst of the rush of the books of the season. | |
It is good to have a book that is full of meat, one with broad | |
margins for scribblings and extra pages for thoughts, poems, | |
thumb-nail sketches. After a long tramp it is nice to see a book | |
which has been clothed with pencilings. It records in a way the | |
spiritual life of the adventure, and will recall it to you when in | |
later years you turn over the page again. | |
An ideal book to carry on a tramping expedition is undoubtedly an | |
anthology of your own compiling, a notebook filled with your favorite | |
verses. | |
Few novels are good tramping books. One gets through the story so | |
quickly, and if there is no more than story there, the book is | |
finished with. | |
Plays, however, come near to being ideal. They take up little space. | |
When all is said, there is one book more worth taking than all the | |
rest; poetry, philosophy, history, fantasy, treatise, novel, and | |
drama, you have all in one in the Bible, the inexhaustible book of | |
books. You need not take it all, take the prophecies, the Psalms, the | |
Gospels. It means much to tramp with one Gospel in the inner pocket | |
of the coat. | |
# Chapter 21: Long Halts | |
It is part of a true tramping jaunt to come back from Nature to man, | |
not of need to civilization, but to men and women and children. The | |
village children will prove as near to the wanderer's heart as the | |
birds in the woods--nearer, for they are wood fairies incarnate, | |
trapped on the edge of the forest and made to live human lives in the | |
villages. | |
Here is opportunity for learning new ways of life and new stories and | |
songs. | |
# Chapter 22: Foreigners | |
To the majority of [the English,] foreigners are dirty foreigners, | |
though, of course, to Americans, one concedes the name cousin. But | |
when you travel about in the world you soon find that in other | |
countries we also are foreigners, perhaps even "dirty foreigners." | |
The language difficulty is enormous. Even if we learn to speak a | |
foreign tongue, we are liable to make mistakes and to have a queer | |
accent. | |
Almost every variation in ways of eating is distasteful. | |
The tramp, the wanderer in strange lands, should at least get over | |
this. | |
There are genial sympathetic souls who have an aptitude for taking a | |
stranger at once to the heart. They are bright-eyed people, friendly | |
at once and friendly for a long while. I have a prejudice in their | |
favor--but, alas, there are not very many of them. ... I believe the | |
affectionate people take the most blows in life. But also they get | |
the greater rewards. | |
# Chapter 23: The Artist's Notebook | |
Self-expression is life. What gives more satisfaction to one's being | |
than to have expressed oneself. One builds a house and expresses | |
[themself], another writes a poem and expresses [themself], another | |
begets a large family and expresses [themself]--and looking back, | |
they can say "Vixi": "I have lived." | |
We were given the world to play with, as blocks with letters on are | |
given to children, for play and--for expression. The whole object of | |
the world is to help us to say a few words about ourselves. I think | |
it is Novalis says: "The world--all nature--is an encyclopædical | |
index of our own souls." If you would read the cypher of your soul | |
you must use the cypher key of Nature. If you would learn and read | |
the language of the heart, the world, the visible universe, shall be | |
your dictionary. | |
Why do we stare at beautiful things? Perhaps we are not using our | |
eyes at all. We are listening. Nature is trying to tell us something; | |
she is speaking to us on a long-distance wave. | |
Your mind is haunted. You have forgotten something, and the flower is | |
trying to tell you. It is reminding you of a forgotten air. Something | |
you cannot quite hear, cannot quite make out. | |
So with all our hilarity, our joyous meetings, our madcap doings, | |
with all the fun of the tramping expedition there is the deeper | |
interest underlying all. Most people will make the tramp without one | |
conscious deeper thought. It does not matter. Their nature is getting | |
something intuitively, although the mind has no knowledge of it. | |
The intuitive understanding rises slowly to the mind, like light | |
traveling from a distant planet to this earth. But you get it at last | |
and see. | |
For it is a measure of hidden honey that is being stored, and you are | |
seldom allowed by Nature to eat of your own store day by day. | |
The true beehive of inner experience is in you, and yet, of course, | |
there are what may be called auxiliary beehives. I believe the | |
conscious experience of a tramp can be greatly increased in a | |
pleasurable way by the use of notebooks. | |
Certain happenings make a day worth while and perhaps forever | |
memorable to you. | |
The artist's daybook is [their] own living gospel--something coming | |
after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--and should be sacred to [them]. | |
Each day Nature puts her magic mirror in our hands. "Oh child, do you | |
see yourself to-day?" | |
The personal diary, however, that daybook of the soul, is not meant | |
for other gaze. | |
It is in description that the keeper of a diary becomes artist. All | |
description is art, and in describing an event, an action or a being, | |
you enter to some extent into the joy of art. | |
author: Graham, Stephen, 1884-1975 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Stephen_Graham_(author) | |
LOC: G504 .G7 | |
source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/7/1/3/4/71340/ | |
tags: ebook,non-fiction,outdoor,travel,vagabond | |
title: The Gentle Art of Tramping | |
# Tags | |
ebook | |
non-fiction | |
outdoor | |
travel | |
vagabond | |