INTO THE RABBIT HOLE

INTO THE RABBIT HOLE

I am beginning to know how Alice felt when she fell into the Rabbit Hole. Several months ago, vaguely committed to the idea of having a ‘paid sabbatical’ in the Jewel of the Crown of National Parks, I applied for seasonal work with the retail/hospitality concessionaire for Yellowstone National Park. Now, I am very busy battening the hatches of my life so I can enter my own Grand Adventure. I suppose one could argue that turning 60 this year means I’m too old to emulate Alice. But why should characters from kids’ books own the market on adventure?

Both Alice and the other iconic adventurer of our childhoods, Dorothy, literally fell into totally different worlds than their nice, safe ‘real’ worlds. Their new worlds were filled with chaos and magical beings- a caterpillar that smoked a hookah, a scaredy-cat lion with a heart of gold, a nattily-dressed rabbit unduly focused on his watch. Each took their own ‘shero’s journey’ through dangers for which they were unprepared by their ‘real’ world. Each came back to their real world stronger, more resilient and resourceful. In the end, isn’t that the point of a hero’s journey?

Granted there are those among my gentle readers who know me well that would claim I already live a life of adventure. I backpack, white-water raft, travel alone to places I’ve never been. I’ve even lived in a ‘foreign country’. My friends might argue that I am an adrenaline junkie and maybe they are right. But somehow leaving my home, packing up my pickup with a few clothes and my many outdoors toys like my car-camping stuff, backpack, kayak and my bike to work for five months in a place I applied for online working for people I’ve never met in person and living in a dorm with strangers yet to be friends takes ‘adventure’ to a whole new level. Even for me.

Yet, here I am. Making final plans and multiple lists, preparing my home as best I can so it weathers the baking heat of the Tucson summer and its drenching August monsoons, putting my business affairs in the best possible order so my replacement can smoothly go about my business without my constant intervention - THIS feels like more than an adventure. It feels like an epic journey over the ice – or into the Rabbit Hole. I don’t really expect to find a hookah-smoking caterpillar but there will be plenty of ‘wild’ creatures with which I am yet unfamiliar except on the pages of books-mighty grizzlies, unmovable bison, soaring eagles and mysterious wolves. I imagine I might meet one or two characters that could easily be the model for a Baum or Carroll character.  Animals and characters worthy writing about.

So, just as I head ‘over the hill’ as my friend says as least I’m headed into the woods. Arguably, the grandest ‘woods’ this mighty country has to offer. Perhaps, gentle reader, you might join me on my way.