Ep. 218 Sam Elias, Journeys and Paradox

Sam and I first visited on the podcast back in 2020, episode 134. We tried hard to find the truths we knew were present but couldn't quite get there. We didn't know each other well enough and they were turbulent times when we all felt some heavy emotional and cultural and moral stimulus but couldn't yet make sense of it. During the intervening years we both settled down a bit, or at least discovered ways to manage the stimulus without being overwhelmed into inaction (or too hasty action) by it. I believe we see and understand each other better now.

On this occasion, Sam joined me the night before he drove away from Salt Lake City, towing a trailer towards his new home in Kentucky. It was worth making the drive down from Montana to see and speak with him one last time before the frequency of such conversations will drop as the geographic distance between us increases.

Thematically, our conversation seemed to follow the arc of a young man into adulthood, passing through a long period of "angsty ambition" and "never enoughness", and how that hungry, thirsty, teeth-gnashing ambition, where commerce influenced behavior, and the need for superlative success was high delivered very little enjoyment. That said as the apogee of trying so hard has passed one may settle into a zone where success may be experienced without superlatives or broadcast, and one may express and experience mastery of skills and self apart from any audience or observation.

We close out our visit talking about shooting; the relationship between it and climbing, the possible life or death moments in any movement or manipulation, the risk calculus, and the appreciation for, and of life itself that arrives when we understand that actions have actual consequences. Both activities may be tools for contemplation, lenses that focus appreciation for life and living it.