Ad Astra Per Aspera
Ad Astra Per Aspera
I guess it’s the way of nature, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
For many of you who know me you will have heard by now, but for others the news is that my father passed away on the 5th of May. It was both somewhat expected, as he had been suffering with COPD, brought on by a habit of smoking that he picked up as a soldier in Korea, and somewhat a shock. He had stopped for about 12 years but started again due to stress when my mom passed in 2007. I’ll miss him dearly but know that a 90 year run is more than anyone has a right to ask. He instilled a great many things in me, but perhaps the most valuable lesson is this: Never give up!
My friends and kids have heard me say this more than any of them would care to admit. I really started thinking about it in earnest during my college days. A friend and I, when lamenting our lack of girlfriends, turned to a phrase I used back then…Nothing easy to get is worth keeping! I believe to this day that this sentiment applies to everything in life. Relationships, particularly with your spouse, jobs, and for this blog… athletic events.
Apparently, this also applied to my “enhanced career” as a student at NMSU, one that took longer than many of my friends. As I toiled mightily to pass my Electrical Engineering courses (Hell, I’ll admit it, I also struggled to get through almost every class but those that required memorization!!), I kept reminding myself that the struggle to get through would make the victory of a degree that much sweeter, and valuable. I often tell folks that NMSU either had to graduate me, or lacking that, offer me a tenured position on staff!!
So it is that which I now apply to my Tour Divide.
It was with a bit of surprise that I found something while reading a Doctoral Dissertation for work, from a brilliant friend of my who passed too young, Dr. Russ Jedlicka. Russ was one of the most intelligent and genuine persons I have ever known. In the dedication in his dissertation, I found the following phrase, “Ad Astra per Aspera”. Now apparently the phrase Ad Astra has been around for over 2000 years. It means “To the Stars” and is said to have originated with Virgil, who wrote in his Aeneid. The total phrase is the motto of Kansas. "Ad Astra per Aspera" is Latin for "to the stars through difficulties." John James Ingalls coined the motto in 1861. So, there you have the history…enough of that.
So, “to the stars through difficulties” has a couple of interpretations, but basically it all boils down to this…It is only through difficulties that we reach our goals. Sound familiar? Nothing easy to get is worth keeping. The difficulties are the part of the journey that gives the outcome value. (At least that is how I see it)
As I keep planning to embark on my difficult journey, there are a million thoughts that run through my head. As I’ve said earlier, I know this trip down the TD will be more challenging, scary, lonely, and difficult without a riding partner. This time however, my dad will be with me. Not physically obviously, but in spirit and in memory.
Anybody that knows me also knows that I wear my heart on my sleeve, and that my emotions lurk just under the surface. The Tour Divide exacerbates this in a million different ways. One is so hot or cold, hungry, exhausted mentally and physically, and beat down, that your emotions are raw. I don’t know that I cried (OK, once for sure when I saw Lola) on my first trip down the TD, but I know with the recent passing of my dad, I definitely will on this trip. I’ll be thinking of his life, his struggles, his time in Korea, and all the other rough times he had growing up in Northern NM, with little money, during the 1930s. I’ll try me best to remember that my Divide trip is just a challenge I presented to myself and not something outside of my control that life dumped on me.
I will live with the words quoted by Russ, “Ad Astra per Aspera”, and I will understand and embrace that what makes the Tour Divide something I want to do lies in the challenge of completing it, in spite of the difficulties.
The difficult journey is as big a gift as finishing the ride.
Ride On!!!
Shane
