The Track

There’s a kind of energy that builds when we are preparing to do something new. Something that we’ve never done before. “Potential energy”. As this energy builds, so too does the potential of the system the energy is stored in. In eighth grade, my physics teacher described this as a roller-coaster, slowly click-click-click—clacking up a steep track, before sending your stomach for a drop. It’s a gratifying thing, to build potential energy, anticipation rises and your predictable days become less and less certain. Whether you are preparing for college, working on a new skill, practicing a sport, or investing money, you are climbing the tracks.

Of course, the climb itself is often predictable. Days of repetitive energy accumulation often look like hard-nosed studying, dull weight drills, or monotonous service work, punctuated by the more predictable unpredictability of routine. Perhaps a pet gets sick, a tire goes flat, or an ankle is sprained. These unpredictable punctuations each have the potential to harm, or even ruin our uphill climb. Sometimes that pet passes, the broken tire turns into a broken car, or the sprained ankle turns into a torn ligament; when these punctuations turn into disasters we spend more energy than we like, and our track grows even longer.

But that is part of the climb, it is part of the mountain, and it is part of life. All of us will have moments in which we must respond, we must react, and we must stay based in a firm foundation. The roller-coaster, after all, runs on tracks. A train connects our sprawling world, a tank may divide it, and a tractor renews it. Like the roller-coaster that entertains us, they all rest upon the firm foundation found in their tracks.

I get sentimental thinking of tracks, specifically the natural tracks I hiked in my youth. There is an unrivaled kind of potential energy, which can only be found in the wild unknown: the shrouded forests, the paradoxical mountains, the elusive hills. The mystery of natural exploration holds within it the potential of danger, of fortune, of tragedy, and of discovery. These are the tracks that I hold fast to when I travel, the spirit of the unknown wilderness, calling to be known.