Winds

November 9, 2025 Barefoot KenCornell Mountain, Harriman State Park, hiking, Manly Health and Training, Nature, Stash Rusin, Travel, Walt Whitman, writing2 Comments

It was a cool morning in early November. I was following a ridgeline in Harriman State Park, moving through open forest and across grassy knolls, sauntering easy and cheerful as the morning sun set the oak forest glowing in colors of tawny ocher and burnt orange — when suddenly the wind picked up. It rolled in from the west without warning, jostled treetops, roared like a jet plane. I zipped my jacket tighter, recognizing in the rough gusts the angry sound of winter.

That evening, I was chatting with my friend Stash Rusin, who’d recently climbed Cornell Mountain in the Catskills on a cold fall day, the sky overcast, the ground at elevation already dusted with snow as light as sugar frosting, although surprisingly no ice. From the summit, he looked south, but a squall had pushed into the valley and blocked the mountain views. He made his way through the woods to the north side of the summit and found himself in the middle of a maelstrom. “The winds were 30-40-50 mph,” he recalled. They made him feel “so excited – so alive.” Continue reading “Winds” →

Fork in the Road

August 30, 2025 Barefoot KenAlita Battle Angel, books, consciousness, Ghost in the Machine, Henry David Thoreau, Lives of Quiet Desperation, Manly Health and Training, Mose Velsor, Philosophy, Ray Kurzweill, Singularity, Transcendentalism, transhumanism, Walt Whitman, writingLeave a comment

We have reached an interesting fork in the road on our collective journey. One way is a short cut to the promised land. The other way takes us home. Speaking as both a runner and an analyst, I’ve made my choice – how about you?

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Transcend What?

September 7, 2024September 8, 2024 Barefoot KenAbraham Maslow, Christopher Columbus, Christopher Ryan, Civilization and its Discontents, Civilized to Death, Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Exodus, Henry David Thoreau, Jacques Ellul, King James Bible, Moses Velsor, Propaganda, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Scott Barry Kaufman, Self-transcendence, Sigmund Freud, Transcendentalism, Walt Whitman1 Comment

In his noteworthy 2020 book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Scott Barry Kaufman builds upon the work of pioneering humanist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) to offer a 21^st-century definition of “transcendence,” together with a review of scientific techniques for healing, growth, and self-actualization.

In a previous article,[i] I offered a quantitative definition of transcendence, yet one that was inspired by the 19^th-century American Transcendentalist tradition, whose most famous authors include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, John Burroughs, and John Muir. Staring with a metaphor for transcendence, I suggested the act of climbing a mountain, crossing a range, reaching the other side. Although to be clear, “transcendence” is not a place you reach. It is not a target end-state. Better to think of it as a vector, consisting of a direction (“up”) and a distance (how far you can climb), except we’re interested in maximizing happiness, rather than elevation. The best way to maximize happiness, according to the American Transcendentalists, is to spend time in nature. This is because the Transcendentalists saw exposure to “wild” environments as necessary for developing spiritual power. Bear in mind the Transcendentalists were writing during the mid- to late-19^th century, when America was rapidly industrializing and urbanizing, and the frontier was already starting to close. Continue reading “Transcend What?” →

Transcend This! A Quantitative Interpretation of American Transcendentalism

February 17, 2024February 21, 2024 Barefoot KenAmerican Trancscendentalism, art, books, Henry David Thoreau, John Burroughs, John Muir, poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman1 Comment

How to Allocate Your Time, Avoid Burn-out, Boost Your Spiritual Power, and (Possibly) Make it to the Other Side

The word “transcend” is derived from the Latin “trans” (across) and “scandere” (to climb). In a sense, the word means to cross a mountain range. Like the scout William Lewis Manly, who found a route across the Panamint Mountains bordering Death Valley, made it to coastal California, and returned with food to save his comrades who were starving. This was in 1849.[1] Go back further in time, and it’s not hard to imagine our hunter-gatherer ancestors staring at a mountain wall, wondering what they would discover on the other side. If they could find a route across.

Today we use the term, “self-transcendence,” in a more general sense, wondering if we could become tomorrow, in some way, better, stronger, happier, and more productive than we are today.

American Transcendentalism was a 19^th century philosophical movement which included authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, John Burroughs, and John Muir, among others.

The central premise of Transcendentalist philosophy was that people could achieve self-transcendence by drawing spiritual power from nature. In this regard, the Transcendentalists were reacting to problems they perceived in 19^th century America, where industrialization and urbanization were spreading rapidly, and the frontier was shrinking and would soon close. Among the clerks, mechanics, priests, professionals, and others who spent their days indoors, Thoreau remarked on what he perceived as “lives of quiet desperation.” Emerson railed against the conformity, timidity, anxiety, and toxic egotism he associated with conventional society. Whitman was blunt – writing under the pen name Mose Velsor, he warned that a sedentary indoors lifestyle devoted purely to mental work was “death.”

Fast forward to today. The Transcendentalists are still remembered, but the popular narrative has shifted. The new philosophy is Transhumanism – the hope that we will transcend our limitations through technology. Transhumanism culminates in the “Singularity” – the point at which humans and machines merge.

Exhibit 1: Search Trends Show Transhumanism Eclipsing Transcendentalism

Source: Google Trends

Continue reading “Transcend This! A Quantitative Interpretation of American Transcendentalism” →

Go Minimalist. Declutter Your Mind

August 12, 2023August 27, 2023 Barefoot KenShawangunk Grasslands, Walt WhitmanLeave a comment

Minimalism is a modern incarnation of an ancient philosophy — the premise is to simplify. The minimalist would have you declutter your home. Buy fewer things. Save money. Throw out unneeded stuff and create for yourself extra space and time.

Now let’s talk about decluttering your mind. The minimalist would say, be skeptical. About what you hear on the radio or see on TV or read in mainstream and social media. Beware of experts with financial interests. Let go of outdated ideas. Discount conventional wisdom and conformist thinking. Let go of your own rationalizations driven by ego and insecurity. Free yourself from all that mental baggage.

You see, the mind is like a garden that’s gone to seed and needs some weeding.

Or is it?

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Hyper-reality and the Desert of the Real

November 13, 2022November 20, 2022 Barefoot KenBlissfeel, Cypher, George Catlin, Haruki Murakami, Hyperreality, Isa-tai, Jacques Ellul, Jean Baudrillard, John Burroughs, Manhattan, The Desert of the Real, the matrix, Walt WhitmanLeave a comment

Flying into LaGuardia, the City shimmering outside the airplane window — labyrinth of light beneath squid-ink sky. Bridges spanning black waters, buildings silhouetted against dark vistas, boulevards radiating in concentric directions. Circuit board of the digital economy.

“City of hurried and sparkling waters!” sang Walt Whitman, “city of spires and masts! City nested in bays! my city!”

But it’s not my city. Not anymore. Never really was… Continue reading “Hyper-reality and the Desert of the Real” →

More Nature, Less Technology

October 23, 2022 Barefoot KenClarence King, Edward Abbey, Ernst Schrodinger, Gary Snyder, Hoot Owl, Intergenerational Discussion, Jacques Ellul, John Burroughs, John Zerzan, Schrodinger's Cat, Spravato, Technology, The Technological Society, Walt Whitman, Worse is Better11 Comments

“You’ll be the troublemaker.” Arif gave me a sly look as he guided me to a far corner of the restaurant, and I nodded, because surely life is too short for small talk.

There were six of us seated at the table. Four middle-aged women — each one attractive, intelligent, engaging, successful. A quiet-spoken serious young man with a shock of brown hair. And me, wearing camouflage-colored Yankees cap and a few days’ worth of stubble.

This was an “intergenerational dinner,” hosted by the Hoot Owl, a cozy restaurant in upstate New York with a loyal local following. The event was organized around a series of questions designed to elicit discussion.

Anne had been tasked as the table’s guide, and now she opened with the first question – what makes you feel most alive? Continue reading “More Nature, Less Technology” →

Whitman and Wilmington

April 30, 2022May 2, 2022 Barefoot Ken100 Marathon Club, 100 Marathons, Barefoot Marathon, Barefoot Marathon Runner, Barefoot Running, Delaware Running Festival, Manly Health and Training, Moses Velsor, Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman Bridge, Walt Whitman Gravesite, Walt Whitman Service Area4 Comments

By Barefoot Ken

Surprise. On the way to (yet) another race, I’ve pulled off the New Jersey Turnpike — desperate for coffee, water, a break from unpredictable traffic (speeds of up to 95 MPH) — and here I find myself, suddenly, in the Walt Whitman Service Area. Whitman being, to some, the greatest artist America has produced. The singer of the open road. The poet of Democracy. I did not know there was a Service Area named for him. After the race I’m planning to visit his gravesite, which lies a few miles distant. First, though, I must complete the Delaware Running Festival Marathon in nearby Wilmington, my 100^th event of marathon distance or longer. Which begs the question — what next?

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22 Times Up Peekamoose

March 27, 2022March 27, 2022 Barefoot KenCatskill Mountains, Forest bathing, Nature, Peekamoose, Reconnoiter Rock, Shawangunk Ridge Trail, Table Mountain, The Grid, Van Wyck Mountain, Walt WhitmanLeave a comment

Afterwards, sitting by the fire, sipping Darjeeling tea, listening to a violin sonata, there was a feeling of completion. And a moment of contemplation. Beforehand, though, I wasn’t sure I had the energy. Maybe yesterday took something out of me. I hiked up the mountain behind the house, with 40 pounds on my back, in the middle of a snow storm. (How the tall slender maples whipped back and forth as the wind rolled through!) Maybe it was the thought of snowshoes, which following the storm would certainly be called for. I’m not a fan of the extra clumsy weight and hadn’t touched them in a year. Maybe life is variable, and our energy levels fluctuate for reasons that aren’t apparent. Or maybe this is how it feels as you get older.

In any case, it wasn’t until I was back home and going through the spreadsheet that I realized how many times I’d climbed Peekamoose Mountain in the Catskills, and its Neighbor Table Mountain….

Continue reading “22 Times Up Peekamoose” →

Walt Whitman’s Speciman Days

November 4, 2017November 4, 2017 Barefoot KenSpeciman Days, Walt Whitman3 Comments

In Whitman: A Study, east coast naturalist John Burroughs presented his friend Walt Whitman as the poet of democracy, primal man, visionary of the open air, barbarian in the parlor, force of nature, prophet. The famous literary critic Harold Bloom goes even further, placing Whitman on par with Shakespeare and describing him as “the greatest artist his nation has brought forth” and “as close to an authentic American saint as we will ever know.” I was thus very excited recently to come across Whitman’s memoir, Speciman Days, which would give me a chance to better understand the poet’s vision.

Speciman Days is not a conventional life story but rather a series of vignettes. What I loved the most was how Whitman described the simple experience of being outdoors, which was for him a source of health, joy, and even ecstasy, and also the standard of beauty against which he judged art and literature. In fact, the outdoors life was in his view critical for “the whole politics, sanity, religion, and art of the New World.” Without a direct connection to nature, he warned, American democracy would “dwindle and pale.”

Readers of this blog won’t be surprised that I sympathize with this view. But in modern America, the outdoors life is for the most part a thing of the past: according to recent data, the average American today spends only 7% of their time outdoors.

Should we be worried?

American time indoors pie chart

Continue reading “Walt Whitman’s Speciman Days” →

The Long Brown Path

Peak-bagging, running, barefooting, exploring, and other minimalist adventures in nature

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