Three Travel Lessons Learned in 2023 (Hi Nonprofit Leader!)
Resting feet in Shenandoah National Park.
Since last year I failed miserably at my goal to transition to a 4-day work week, I decided to travel more in 2023 and take longer weekends more frequently. This past fall, I traveled to Shenandoah National Park. This is #10 out of 63 NPs for me.
Life teaches us so many lessons if we just open our hearts, minds, and spirit a bit.
I will take these 3 lessons with me as I continue to work in communities. Perhaps they will resonate with you as well.
Go at your own pace. Although I love to hike, elevation gain kicks my …... well you know. I take stops along the way to catch my breath. Other people pass me by, and I must be OK with that. It’s my hike not theirs.
Get curious. There is always a history of a place. Many of us never think about our ancestors or those who lived on the land before us. I live in Cherokee County, Georgia. Let that sink in.
Shenandoah National Park has a complex past. About 500 families were removed from the land their families had occupied for generations, some paid for their land and others removed from it through eminent domain.
The Appalachian people were “studied” by “scholars” like Miriam Sizer, Mandel Sherman, and Cora Keys. They collected “data” and concluded in their report that the Appalachian people were incapable of taking care of themselves, were uneducated, and backward. These studies, based on stereotypes, helped justify their removal.
History is more complex than we understand.
In today’s world of sound bites and one-way channels, we often assume our view of issues and the world are correct. Although some national park leaders objected, SNP was segregated for much of its history in keeping with the segregated culture and practices of Virginia. The Lewis Mountain recreation area was set aside for “colored guests.” Gradually the park was desegregated, and was fully desegregated by 1950, before the rest of the country.
SNP maintains a few structures left of Herbert Hoover’s retreat, Rapidan Camp. The “Brown House” predates Camp David. We took a ranger-led tour of the camp, with Ranger Ginny, a park ranger for 18 years and a retired high school social studies teacher. Her love of history is infectious. She wanted us to know that although Hoover is not known as one of our greatest Presidents, he was an accomplished engineer, administrator, and humanitarian. Clearly, he was not perfect. But the marriage of Herbert and his wife Lou is fascinating to me. Lou was the first woman to graduate from Stanford with a Geology degree. She traveled with him widely and was his partner in work and life. She wrote when she was only 15 years old: “The independent girl is …… surely to meet a spirit equally as independent as her own, and then – there is a clash of arms …… or they united their forces with combined strength go forth to meet the world.” Herbert and Lou’s relationship certainly exemplifies that statement.
Hope you glean something from this as you work in your communities.
Take care-
Ann