No Good at Good-bye

This is one of the first pictures I saw of Logan, Utah, where I have lived with Scott for almost two years now. It does not capture the open views of Cache Valley and surrounding mountains, but still I like it. These are simple, uncluttered days for us, so we have had time to reflect and prepare for Peace Corps. This week we have been taking care of last minute details for our upcoming itinerant life and seeing friends when we can.


The picture is of Scott and Andrew, the son of our friends Scott and Liz, and it was taken near Brian's house. Brian is the good friend with whom we are staying until we leave for Miami. I am thankful we have friends like him. I have learned a lot from Brian; I think Scott and I both have.


Brian lives in a rustic house north of Logan, where there are more hayfields and open land compared to where we lived this year a block from downtown. It is refreshing and peaceful. After Scott sold our car on Friday and our remaining unclaimed possessions were littering Brian's driveway, Brian and I talked about how attached people can become to material things. I felt it was freeing to be rid of so much stuff, but the process was somewhat awkward and humiliating, finding people who wanted some of our stuff and then seeing in the end what was left on the ground like trash. How can we be strapped to so many things?


Brian told me about meeting a guy who saw his house and asked about his ambitions, if he eventually wanted one of the sprawling houses of the well-to-do on the mountainside. Brian said no without hesitation. I guess the guy thought that having excess wealth would guarantee him friends and an exciting life. I agreed with Brian that it is best to have only what you need and to be content with fewer things rather than always wanting more. It seems like such a fair and sustainable way to live. I am glad we are going to a different world, in a sense, with Peace Corps, where money is not so handy and priorities are sometimes upside down to the American way of accumulating extraneous possessions.

Brian is unassuming and has a generous personality, not only in giving of material things like sharing his house with us, but in his evenness of temper. I think he could get along with almost anyone. He can see other people's points-of-view, or at least agrees to try. At the same time, he is ready to admit his limitations as a human being. We all have limitations, but I do not think he has very many. Brian was a very strong climber before I knew what climbing was. This is a picture of Brian climbing a 5.13b route in Logan Canyon, and below is a picture of Brian mountain biking with us in Green Canyon.