Field of View: Overlooking Castle Valley from Upper Porcupine Rim. Photo: Radha Marcum
There is a lot of Timmy O’Neill in this issue of Elevation Outdoors. I guess that makes sense, since the athlete/comedian/filmmaker/writer/drummer/Patagonia ambassador makes a point of being in the middle of any happening and this is our annual festival guide. With his boundless enthusiasm, love of a beat, playfulness and ability to inspire, he’s a good mascot for the festival vibe.
I have seen a lot of Timmy in person recently, too (working in our favorite coffee shop, Jet’s Espressoria in Boulder, of course). While we were there, he told me a story about Africa that stuck with me, gnawed at me, in fact. You can read about the incredible Tuareg music event Festival au Desert, Timmy attended while there. Great stuff. But Timmy was in Africa for far more than grooving in the sand. While there, he worked with climber and ophthalmologist Dr. Geoff Tabin (who works with the Himalayan Cataract Project), aiding in cornea replacement surgery in Nigeria. These operations make it so poor people can see, changing their lives.
Timmy told me about one woman whose eyes could be easily cured, but was afraid of the operation. He finally talked her into it, but as the procedure began, it was too much for her. She wouldn’t do it and went back to her village, choosing to remain blind. This sad story hit me particularly hard not because I judged her for making that decision, but because I wondered if I have made the choice to remain blind instead of taking risks in my own life. What is it we are afraid of, what frightening challenges do we decide not to face?
We have other stories in this issue of people who have had the courage to open their eyes. In “Running Free”, Chris Kassar, a biologist in Flagstaff who decided (with the help of Timmy of course, as well as author Craig Childs and photographer James Q. Martin), that she can at least try to save Patagonia’s wild Rio Baker from a massive dam. She is willing to stare down a global corporation in a foreign country, because she doesn’t want to see the same mistakes made in Chile as were made years ago on her Colorado River.
And I was lucky enough to talk with Jonathan Waterman about his voyage down that same Colorado River, which no longer reaches the sea after being sucked dry by the cities and agriculture and 30 million people in the West. His courage—not just to travel down the whole river, but also to try to open our eyes so that we may change the way we use the river—is inspirational.
I know that there is a world at risk around me, a world warming, burning, drying out, losing its diverse flora and fauna. It’s a world I can at least try to save if I open my eyes and take bigger risks. It’s easy to get so attached to our lives, our job as it is, our responsibilities, so that we no longer believe we can make a difference. I’m glad to work with Timmy, Chris and Jonathan, to have their voices here, and I am determined to believe that if I open my eyes more, that if I risk more to protect what I love, I will at least have had the courage to try. What can you risk to see better?
