Fathers and Sons
“In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Early June. Dawn brings mist covered mountains and an empty road. The car’s capsule draws us together. I am taking my adult son to a trail that begins at the bottom of a ski slope where he will start a twenty-one mile run up and over a series of mountain peaks and through dense forests.
It is Sunday morning and soon many will awake and go into buildings to pray. Emerson and Thoreau suggested otherwise, and my son hears the same call. “Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures,” said Thoreau. God is not caged in a building where preachers prattle about commonplaces meant to soothe bad consciences.
As he adjusts his running vest with its bottles of water, he walks toward the ascending path. From the rear, his curly hair and neck remind me of the little boy who loved nature so that he uncannily knew the names of every country and all their animals, as he now knows every bird and all their calls in an instant.
My heart opens like a flower as I watch him go.
Highly accomplished professionally and athletically, I think he runs to find the rhythm of life’s essence and the peace that passes all understanding. And to overcome himself. Always self-overcoming! I recall when I was his age how, when I went on much, much shorter and easier runs in natural surroundings, I would sometimes think of Leo Tolstoy or his character Andrei in War and Peace or Levin mowing with a scythe in Anna Karenina, finding the peace of the uncaged God in nature’s beauty and rhythmic movement. Now when I walk it is no different. And I too prefer to go alone.
I agree with Nietzsche, who wrote on scraps of paper while walking in the mountains: “Sitting still is the real sin against the Holy Ghost.”
I think of my father, with whom I talk regularly, who died thirty-two years ago and who walked city streets to different beats. He was conventional in certain ways, but from the stories I’ve heard about him when he was an age similar to my son’s, he did things that I would have warned against, but that I have come to realize are useless suggestions against God’s seal on one’s soul. Quien sabe? (who knows?) was his favorite phrase. I don’t. Advice can be crippling. I am a recovering crippler out of love, but a love filled with fear for the safety of those I love, although I too was like my father and son, and many would say I still am, in a different way. Love is strange. So is daring.
When my father wa
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
