Let The Wonder Never Cease: Adventures, Insights and Reminiscings

By Michael Kinziger

There are many times that I wish that I had taken the time to write more from my heart and from my feelings than from the necessity to write to survive in academia. Retirement time but especially the capability to transcribe journals and letters and memory has resulted in this rare collection of 55 stories t

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647538071

Michael Kinziger

Mike Kinziger resides in Deary, Idaho where he lives in a remote home in the foothills of The Rocky Mountains. He is retired from the University of Idaho where he taught and coordinated Outdoor Leadership for 17 years as an associate professor in recreation. Mike also taught recreation at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse for 17 years as well as four years in a middle school. In total, Mike taught for 38 years accumulating seventeen teaching and outstanding performance awards. He has taught more than 25 different courses about recreational activities and creative play. Since 1982, Mike has conducted more than 150 workshops and had speaking engagements across the United States directed toward team building and play in our lives. He also organized and directed a group called Just For Fun that provided recreational activity for special groups, corporations and school groups. Mike instructed at the International Clown Camp for five years where he taught clowns games that they could use when performing. He continues to conduct workshops and to speak at conferences. Mike's outdoor experience includes everything from mountain biking to whitewater canoeing and he has led more than one hundred wilderness classes. He has been a scout, Vietnam veteran, athletic director and coached junior college basketball, tennis and golf. He is the holder of six long distance canoe records and is a role model for active, healthy lifestyle. Since retiring, he has completed five solo canoe adventures averaging three to five weeks in length in the Canadian wilderness. All of the trips were self-contained and involved no contact with other humans. His book on these excursions is called, "ALONE IN A CANOE". He has also published a highly successful book of team building games and activities which includes more than 100 possible leadership ideas. The book is called, THE VERY BEST GROUP GAMES EVER PLAYED.

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Title Page

Let The Wonder Never Cease

Copyright © 2021 by Michael Kinziger. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021908988

ISBN 978-1-64753-806-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-807-1 (Digital)

27.04.21

PREFACE

There are many times that I wish that I had taken the time to write more from my heart and from my feelings than from the necessity to write to survive in academia. Retirement, time but especially the capability to transcribe journals and letters and be able to save them in a computer file has significantly enhanced my ability to write this book. I have included 56 articles that may be classified as 1) adventures, 2) insights, and 3) reminiscing’s. Most entries have been written since the late 1990’s although there are a few that I somehow managed to find and save from many years ago despite major moves across the country and the raising of a family. So many good things get lost or discarded along our journey of life.

A couple of things to know: At times it will appear that there is not a logical sequence or a time frame to the individual stories. That would be a good observation. I did attempt to keep the longer journal stories together as well as the campfire stories and much of my very personal insights. The photos are mostly mine and Deanna’s. I thank her for her photographic ability and for working with me to select the best representative images possible.

The stories in this book have been prepared by the author. The contents may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form, and the stories and descriptions of this book may be disseminated and shared with others without express written consent. I want to clear this up right here. This means that you honor me by selecting stuff that I wrote and passing it on to others.

DEDICATION

I have lived as full a life as anyone can possibly expect. I have touched lives and in return have been sincerely touched by so many. Inspiration… it comes from so many directions and is best appreciated in the moment. That seems to be when the best stories materialize. I thank all of you who will read this and know that you have always been my inspiration.

CONTENTS

PEAK EXPERIENCE

A MAN’S MEMORY

THE PASSAGE OF TIME

GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY

STUMBLING TO FIND HAPPINESS

MY PITY PARTY EXPERIENCE

HOW TIMES CHANGE

TALKING STICK

STORY OF LIFE

TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME

MY EPIPHANY

A NEW HERO

STILL LEARNING

IMMORTALITY

A HAROLD KINZIGER STORY–MY FATHER

DIVISIVENESS

ONE MOMENT – ONE MISTAKE

A VISIT FROM A STRANGER

THE SERPENT AND THE PLAYGROUND

INTEGRITY

TRIBUTE TO K – APRIL 4TH, 2014

DEANNA AT A CONFERENCE

MY FATHER THE MOTHER

WHAT MEMORIAL DAY MEANS TO ME

WHAT WE DID DURING THE PANDEMIC

CORRESPONDENCE WITH ONE OF MY FIRST STUDENTS EVER (7TH GRADE CIVICS)

HOLIDAY FAMILY TREASURES

THE FISHERMAN

A TAIL OF TWO CITIES

RIVERS

HANNAH SURVIVAL

WONDERFUL MARRIAGES – A SATIRE

FAMILY CANOE TRIP

LEADING AND TEACHING

TRAGEDY MESSAGE

MATRIMONY ON THE BANKS OF THE GRANDE RHONDE RIVER

THE YEAR OF COVID–2020

PRIEST RIVER TRIP

YELLOWSTONE RIVER RECORD SETTING ENDEAVOR

COUNTRY LIVING PERSPECTIVE

BREAKING CANOE CAMP AND BEING ALONE

THE COON CREEK CANOE RACE AND FESTIVAL

THE COON CREEK CANOE RACE IN 100 MINUTES OR LESS

THE WISCONSIN RIVER CANOE TRIP- A RECORD SETTING PACE

RIDING THE FLOOD WATERS–THE ST. CROIX RIVER

MEXICAN VOLCANOS AND CLIMBING WITH FRIENDS

GRACIE AND THE OATMEAL

BE NICE

FOUR WISHES

THOUGHTS ON RELATIONSHIPS AT THE AGE OF 55

BEYOND MIDLIFE

REFLECTIONS: THE MOTHER AND FATHER

ANOTHER ANNIVERSARY – FIRST ONE IN THE VA RETIREMENT HOME

HONOR FLIGHT

LIFE LESSONS

VISION QUEST

WHO AM I… OR WHO I WAS YEARS AGO

IT IS TIME! MY RETIREMENT SPEECH

LIVING OBITUARY FOR MICHAEL L. KINZIGER

PEAK EXPERIENCE

When I was working on my Master’s Degree, I came across this parable written by Leo Buscaglia. Since that time the parable has become a dominant theme in my life.

There was a Buddhist monk who one day found himself running from a hungry bear. The bear chased him to a cliff. There was nothing for him to do, if he did not desire to be food for the bear’s hungry stomach, but jump. He did so and was able to catch hold, as he fell, of a branch of wood growing from the cliff’s side. As he hung there, looking up at the hungry bear above, he heard the roar of a famished lion far below who was already waiting for him to tire, lose his grip and fall into its hungry jaws. As the monk hung suspended, hungry bear above and starving lion below, he noticed the heads of two gophers appear from the cliff’s side. At once they began gnawing on the small stump to which he so desperately clung. All at once the monk saw that just a stretch away was a small clump of wild strawberries. He calmly reached out, plucked the largest, reddest, and ripest of the berries, and put it into his mouth.

How delicious, he said.

Peak Experience: Often described as a transcendent moment of pure joy and elation. These are moments that stand out from everyday events. The memory of such events is lasting and people often liken them to a spiritual experience. There are several unique characteristics of a peak experience, but each element is perceived together in a holistic manner that creates the moment of reaching one’s full potential.

Allow me to digress…

Many years ago when I was in grad school, I rewarded myself with the purchase of a kayak kit which I proceeded to assemble and take pride in. I was living on the backwater of the Mississippi River and spent numerous hours paddling and getting used to this boat. I taught myself the arduous skill of paddling and Eskimo rolling (nothing came easy). And then it was off to whitewater and adventure. I don’t tell this story often because I never really understood what a peak experience was all about.

Well, I drove up to the border between Wisconsin and Michigan in early June to a river that was at flood level but eventually flowed into Lake Superior. We peeled out in to the river about a mile above the highway bridge that crossed this fast moving stream. What a day it was…sun, a Lake Superior breeze, a good friend in the kayak next to me and a new river challenge. (Why are we able to remember somethings so vividly and others not at all?)

The high, fast water carried us downstream so quickly that there was little time to react when suddenly some 25 yards in front of us was the highway bridge. I remember the feeling of panic that raced through my body when I realized that there were only 3 or 4 inches of clearance between the water and the bridge. I attempted to back paddle but the current was too strong and my skills not polished enough to avoid being swept under the bridge. I screamed to my friend and then rolled over and was sucked under that bridge. The thoughts that pass through the mind, the fear, the helplessness…… How did I get in this mess? Would I be able to hold my breathe long enough? Would I get stuck in debris and branches that always seem to lodge under bridges? My friend? My family? My children? When do I try to roll back up? If I come up too soon, will I smash my head on the bridge and knock myself out? If I don’t roll up, will I drown? And then there was light…sort of.

The feeling of immortality may have something to do with what happened. Maybe it was that monk. Since Viet Nam, I have always tried to live the moments. Most people are either living in yesterday or busily working for tomorrow. They look back to the good old days with fondness and try to find in the present the security of the past. They soon discover that they are standing still and don’t realize that to stand still is to move backward. I realize that what has happened before (the bear) has little relevance and certainly little that I can change. The past has value only as it affects the moment.

Other people live for tomorrow. They seem so concerned with some nebulous future that purpose has been lost and they forget that there are no permanent goals. The tomorrow they plan for never comes. I also realize that what might happen (the lion) cannot alter what I may ever want to do. Life is not the goal, it is the process. It is getting there, not the arrival. What the monk (and the parable) taught me is that the most important moment is the one that you are living. There is only one moment. Only the moment has true value, for it is here. The moment is neither lost in yesterday nor does it crave for tomorrow.

My friend and I both executed a nearly perfect Eskimo Roll within ten feet of each other, well down-stream of the bridge. We had experienced a miraculous moment. This was learning unlike any I had ever experienced. It is also the lesson that I continually pass on to students and to my family. It is what has influenced me to have the enthusiasm and energy that radiates from my presence. Throughout my life, I have been driven to Peak Experience type of adventures.

I am sure that there are times when others feel like they are dangling from the side of that cliff, gophers" gnawing away at the branch to which they cling so desperately. It takes effort, but I want to believe that we will always be able to savor the taste of that delicious strawberry.

A MAN’S MEMORY

A man’s memory is the faultiest of instruments…… vulnerable to retrospection and revisionism. Our memories may be altered by age and distance. They are often tainted by heartbreak, disappointment, vanity, embellishment and always by some inconsolable hope that the past was somehow different than we really knew it to be. My own memory is largely visual…. the years and decades of my life defined by images, memorabilia, and often repeated stories to friends and family, although what has become of most of that I could not say. It hardly matters anymore. I don’t need to look or recall images or memorabilia in order to remember for they live on perfectly preserved in my mind.

The old saying has it that as one grows older, they can’t remember where they placed their glasses or the remote five minutes earlier but can remember with total recall something that took place forty or fifty years ago. This seems appallingly true. It is one of my many beliefs that our character is forged at a very young age and although our circumstances may certainly change dramatically in the course of our lives…… our fundamental nature does not! Despite all of the self-improvement schemes, the twelve step programs, the mood stabilizing medications and the therapies…… we are still more or less stuck with ourselves. I am struck by how clearly I recognize myself….. how much a part of me that athletic, enthusiastic, hopeful and often naïve boy still remains. And not discounting the inevitable decay of body and mind that has taken place in the intervening years, I am struck by how little I have changed. The revelation that I will go to my grave as the boy I once was and still am, and always will be, alone makes having persevered all these years worth it. In the same way, how extraordinary to be an older man looking back upon my youthful self. It is kind of like standing between two mirrors and staring down a tunnel to the infinity that they create.

From hour to hour, we ripe and ripe. And from hour to hour, we rot and we rot….. and thereby hangs a tale. From ‘As You Like It" by William Shakespeare

It’s late November. The leaves are off the trees and color has leaked out of the landscape. The tamaracks are the last to go and hold onto their smokey gold radiance.

Now is the time when vicissitudes of life are most clearly revealed? It set me thinking about the colors of my own life…. the brightly hued things I used to do and the dull-colored things that retirement guys can’t do anymore. I was discussing this loss of color recently…. apropos, after raking leaves and pine needles, with another friend almost my age. Essentially she listened and described the First Law of Thermodynamics as a lens for interpretation. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be transferred. I thought about this…. deeply….. and it dawned on me. As my own talents diminish ….. there are many including my children whose talents are flowing as an incoming tide. Sparks are constantly flying off these days.

A group of trees in the snowDescription automatically generated with medium confidence

This is how life unfolds like a Ponderosa Pine loaded with freshly fallen snow with the upper most branch of white stuff eventually falling and cascading into the one beneath it, and that one in turn, cascading into the next. A never ending flow passing from top to bottom, from old to young….. over and over again.

The colors are fading. The leaves are falling. And thereby hangs my tale.

THE PASSAGE OF TIME

As the tide goes out on one beach, it comes in on another. My parents are in their 90’s. I suppose that the passage of individual days ceased to have much meaning for them years ago. They became rich in time, paupers in ambition. I imagine the days all started to run together and still do.

And so it seems more than appropriate….. more important now than ever before to keep moving ahead… to keep experiencing and taking advantage of our feelings and dreams. Because….. because….. we cannot just