A family hike to Dowdle Knob, FDR's historic site, becomes a meditation on decisions and growth. The speaker argues that excuses about time are just that: he trained for marathons while working full time. Perfect moments are fleeting, so you have to carve out the space to live them.
Chapters
I'm here with my new best friend, President Roosevelt, just kind of imagining what he thought as he looked out over this beautiful area and all the things that he came here to contemplate, the big decisions that he had to make and the things that he had to deal with. The truth is that while they were obviously of epic proportions for the whole country, people who come here and sit and contemplate, they're thinking about big things about themselves too. And they're just as important to them as the important decisions that President Roosevelt made here. So as I sit here today with my family and just kind of look out over this and think about what great men like Roosevelt thought and how they acted, it kind of inspires me to want to act a little bit on a bigger stage. Looking down at this bronze statue, it's taken by the —what do you call those things on his legs? Yeah, and they look great detail. In great detail. He said he used to prefer to sit on a car seat that was pulled out of the car instead of on a blanket when he came here. Actually, I'm filming. Oh, okay. Hello! Yeah, having a little picnic with our public subs out here at FDR State Park. Or— okay, we're not really at state park, are we? We're at Dowdle— what was it? Dowdle Ridge? Or Dowdle Knob? Dowdle Knob. It's where FDR FDR used to come, and that's supposedly where he, um, sat right over there somewhere and outlined what he was going to do for the United Nations. Beautiful place. This bag right here was a bargain at $2.49. It's insulated. We got our subs and our drinks over an hour ago, and they're all still cold. And, uh, it was a bargain at Publix, where shopping is a pleasure. Wanted to come out to Pine Mountain out here today just to kind of get away from it all today and just kind of think and relax and kind of let some of the stress off. It's kind of interesting, we're out on this trail here and as you can see it's, it's, uh, it's not very well defined. It's very rocky. But it will get us where we want to go. And that's kind of what I was thinking about on this trail is, you know, sometimes where you want to go, it can be pretty rough, but it'll get you where you want to go if you just follow the trail. But that's not what I really wanted to talk about when I came out here today. What I wanted to talk about was just taking some time to rest and think about what you're trying to accomplish. And sometimes to think about what you're trying to accomplish, you need to forget it. Just get away and refresh and take a day off completely. When I was driving out here today, I couldn't help but notice all the trees. You can probably see some of this. Look at the sky. I mean, there's not a cloud in the sky. It's so deep blue. And the trees are starting to bloom. We're up a little bit, about 1,400 feet, so they're not as filled in as they were when we were driving in. But every one of these trees is blooming and coming in, and every leaf is kind of stretching out and trying to get its portion of the sun, make sure that it gets its nourishment. And it'll grow toward the light, it'll grow around the other trees, the other limbs. It'll just make sure that it continues to progress towards the light that is its nourishment. Oh, almost went down there. And, uh, it's what's really interesting, and you can't see it here. I'd kind of wanted to have a backdrop of it, but you can't see it. But what's really interesting is all the evergreen trees that are so much darker, and it's kind of striking the way that they're just standing there. They've been there all along. It's kind of like the established, uh, things in life are always there, and then every spring we get that newness with the growth. Also, while we're driving out here, I couldn't— wow, this is really rough here, almost hurts my knee, almost. Driving out here, we— what do we got? Oh, got a fork in the road. Now that's interesting, fork in the road. We can go any way we want to go. We can go back where we came from, we can go that way, or we can go that way. Which way are we going? The country store is 14.7, I guess that's miles. I guess we're not going to the country store then. Uh, there's the WJSP TV tower. We're not going to any of those places because we can't be gone that long, but they're all more than 2 miles. But that's cool. But there's, uh, let's go this way because it's not quite so downhill, and that way we won't have to climb back up. Is that okay with you? It's fine by me. So, um, as we were, as we were saying before we got to the fork in the road, had to make a decision. I couldn't, I couldn't get over driving out here how many homes that we passed that just had, you know, dilapidated cars and trash and toys and just all sorts of— and overgrowth and just, just total neglect. And then every once in a while you'd pass this house that was just so well taken care of and so much cared for. I mean, It might even be older than all the other ones, but it was, it was just cared for. And you could really tell the difference in the people in each one of those places because environment is a reflection of the people that reside there. And so a little bit of neglect is okay. I mean, we're going to have— I'm sure if I were to go to one of those beautiful homes that was well taken care of, I'd find things that need to be taken care of that aren't being taken care of, but they will be because that's the type of people that live there. And we all have things in our lives that we neglect and will take care of from time to time, but it's when you neglect things over and over and let them build up that you end up with rusted out cars and dilapidated toys and broken swing sets and trees that are overgrown and shrubs that have taken over the doorway. And just kind of thought that that was You've done it, you've driven out in the country before. But beautiful driving out here. And it was funny, my wife, she said, "There's nothing to look at out here." And I said, "That's funny, because I can't seem to focus on the road, I keep looking at stuff." And that's another thing, is just the perspective that you have, it's what you're trying to accomplish. I was trying to get away from it all, and so sure enough, I was. Just some interesting thoughts as I ended up out here in the wilderness with my son. We were just deciding where to go and we started to go back the way we came. Grant noticed that maybe we could go down here and get a shortcut. I said, I just don't think you can go up from there. I just don't think it's possible. And, uh, we didn't see a trail and apparently there is. But what was stopping us from going through there? I mean, it's not like there's a fence, you know. We— what, just because there's no trail doesn't mean I can't go there? I mean, this is silly. I can't believe that I had such short-sightedness that I didn't realize that people walk through the woods all the time and don't have a trail to walk through. So as we were out walking here and just kind of talking about what I just talked about with Grant, he asked me, "What's the one rock that's in my way of doing what I want to do?" And I guess we all have those rocks, and probably more than one, but the one that's been in my way, of course, the quickest thing to say is, "Well, ya'ass don't have time. I just don't have time." Well, where in the world did I find time to train to run a marathon? I mean, my life isn't any less busy than it was, and yet I've, you know, been running 35 miles a week. Somewhere along the line, you're gonna have to carve out some time. You're gonna have to stop doing some things you were doing, and we just waste an incredible amount of time. And I think that as long as you're focused on what you want to be doing, it's very simple to find the time that you, you need to have in order to accomplish what you want to do. We were sitting up there earlier at the picnic and just taking in the peacefulness of it all and just relaxing, and I was thinking, this is perfect. This is just perfect. It's the perfect moment, but it's only the perfect moment for that moment, and it can never be again. Grant was telling me that he was looking out over it and saying that it was kind of sad in the fact that it'll never look this way again. Something will happen, a tree will fall, or another tree will grow, or whatever. We only have that one moment, and we only have this one moment to live. And I was talking about those trees and how all the leaves are, you know, each reaching for their part of the sun. They only have this summer to live. They're going to fall, and we are too. And it's just time to, time to get going. So what does all of this rambling that I've been doing today really mean? For me, what it means— what do you find? Oh. A couple of— I hope they're in there. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Let's not step on the butterflies or the moths or whatever they are. All this rambling really just means is that you've gotta decide somewhere along the line that you're gonna live more. And you're gonna do more and be more. And I wrote something earlier this week. It was good enough is never good enough, and that's nothing new. It's not exactly how I said it. How did I say it? It was, you know, "Yola." Yeah, I can't remember what I said. I'll have to look that up. But it was essentially, you know, good enough is only good enough for that moment. And then, you know, if you're a growing and advancing human being, it won't be good enough for very long. We can't stand still. We got to keep growing. And so What I take away from today is just the fact that sometimes in order to grow, you got to stop and relax and kind of shut it all off and take it in because you don't really know where you are if you don't stop for a moment. But you can't stop for too long. You got to keep moving. You got to keep growing. You got to keep trying. You got to live more. That is real cool. Carson, so I'll tell you the story. And Mom, I— we were walking down to that view And, um, there was a red Jeep sitting right here, a new 4-door beautiful red Jeep, and a couple sitting over there, and they were getting up and leaving. And so I, I looked and I said, now look, it'll be difficult for us, but we'll trade you the minivan even. We're not even going to ask you to pay anything extra. And they kind of giggled and they said, I don't know, let us think about it a little bit. And so, you know, we just, we kind of giggled and they, they went on their way and we're standing there looking over, over the view and I hear behind me the Jeep start. And so I looked back and I said, I'm taking that as a no. She said, I don't know, let us think about it. We'll be back in a half hour.
