Friday, January 6, 2012

Cliff Walk



What does it mean to be brave? Is it different from being fearless? Being brave means facing our fears and not letting them overwhelm us. Fearless means one is afraid of nothing. We can only be fearless in increments. There will always be something that terrifies us. However, it is possible to be brave in the scariest moments and in the horrible face of what terrifies us.

Over the holiday, I was rereading Don J. Snyder’s 1997 memoir, The Cliff Walk: A Job Lost and a Life Found (Little, Brown and Company/Back Bay Books). Snyder was a successful English teacher at Colgate University in upstate New York when he received his pink slip. The experience changed his life in dramatic and decisive ways.

Snyder’s journey follows his departure from Colgate and details his emotional climb through anger and arrogance, his shortsighted immature approach to the crisis. He is 41 years old, married with three children under the age of seven with a fourth child on the way. Not a good time to be adrift and unemployed in America. (Is there ever a good time?) He applies to universities and colleges literally all over the map, but fails to find another teaching gig that meets with his criteria.

After several late night sessions making endless lists of job prospects and his dwindling resources, Snyder decides to relocate his family to Maine, and they begin to draw on his retirement and meager savings to survive. He proceeds through a number of misadventures, both comic and disturbing, while trying to skate over the thin ice of his collapsing future before he is forced to face facts. The episodes will make the reader cringe, and Snyder is painfully honest, often painting himself in a less than positive light. He bottoms out and takes a physically demanding job as a day laborer in construction at far less pay than any teaching position. His is frigid, exhausting work through the bitter coastal Maine winter, but he is transformed by the experience.

Snyder’s story is one of redemption, and the book contains moments of ethereal beauty. It is a story that moves from fearlessness born of denial and ignorance to bravery and resilience. For most of the book, Snyder seeks to avoid retrospection; he is immature, stubborn, and childlike. But his life forces him down the path to salvation and maturity.

His story reminds me that we suffer our way into wisdom and knowledge. “These are the times that try men’s souls,” Thomas Paine wrote, and although he was speaking of the tyranny of an oppressive monarch, he could have been speaking of the human condition. Every day, in every way, we are tested in this crucible of life.

When we are young, bravery comes more easily because it is born out of ignorance. Young people relish their invincibility; every generation believes they will live forever. And then someone dies, or a war begins, and the illusion is shattered. We become older, more aware of the risks, the high percentage of failure, the fragility of human life.

We seem to want to ignore the signs around us. Things are not that bad, we tell ourselves as we race to the malls for the latest sales. It is all about instant gratification, getting what we want now, rampant materialism. But homeless ghosts wander our streets. People have been so demoralized that they have stopped looking for work. Our government is locked in partisan politics, with ego and party taking precedence over what is right for the American people.

Where is the deeper understanding? Where is our humanity?

We clearly have not suffered our way into wisdom, which means we face more difficult days ahead. On the edge of a chasm, we can claim to be fearless, but the sentiments ring shrill and hollow. To summon true courage to face our fears we first must admit we are afraid. We must be realists and dig deeper to find a way to deal with a rapidly changing world. We must embrace change and accept that impermanence is a part of life. Empires fall, the wind shifts.

I know in this new year there will be pain and suffering because there is always pain and suffering. We must accept the consequences of our lives, even when we did not have a part in creating the situation. Things happen, and we must deal with the fallout. This scares me and makes me wonder if we have the strength and courage to persevere. There is only one way to go: forward. Against the odds, against what fears may come, we must endeavor, every day of this new year, to be brave.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you Paul, for writing so thoughtfully about my book.
    Don J. Snyder

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. Snyder, it is truly an honor that you read my review and took the time to comment. Your book changed my life both when I read it the first time, and again when I reread it in 2012. Thank you for sharing your pain and difficult journey with your readers. I have more to say, but I'll save it for an email.

    Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  3. just found The Cliff Walk, in a DC book rack, maybe two days ago, deciding from the blurbs that it would be worth a skim read. I started in the middle somewhere, and worked my way around, deciding I liked the voice of the author, that he was being honest. well I finished it, or exhausted it, last night, couldn't put it down, making my comments all over the margins. Mr. Snyder came to a realization about this society, or cystem --my coinage, btw, since I haven't encountered it so far (I best get it down asap) -- later in life than others, because I had a smooth sail for a good while, then he sailed into that drifting sea container. I on the other hand, also with a master's degree (and 7-8 years of student life on a campus as beautiful as Colgate's), sort of spotted these containers early, before I ever got a professional job, so finally had to act (make money!) and entered the construction field Mr.Snyder relates so well, the brutal reality of scrounging on a work site, the trepidatiousness of not knowing what you are doing more than half the time, Lord I remember too. all apprentices go thru all that BS, if I may continue my digression, I am astounded at this Larry dude for not explaining things better to you each thing, for God sake if the siding shakes are to go nehinfd the trin , TELL the MAN, sorry but Larry is an ijit, I know him well, good lord). and then getting chewed. I understood all of his sentiments. I stayed in carpentering my entire life (Mr. Snyder is 10 years my senior). I could ramble on, so will cut it here.

    I certainly agree with the Matt Schudel blurb calling this a "courageous" book (Matt writes wonderful obits for the WashPost now).

    Fortunately for Mr.Snyder he stumbled into good pay with this guy Larry, I like him as a person, but he wastes money and people's time. .....thanks so much Don, hope you are doing well, because you can't even find work in construction anymore (age-ism) and believe it, people are still getting paid 15/hr, how ridiculous is that, a sick cystem, I am dropping out. will look for your other books (excuse this ratty post, just wanted to say you have another reader.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tried to enter a comment, but got lost in the source. I loved Mr, Snyder's book, would like to say more but exhausted after losing my last 500 word comment. regards

    ReplyDelete

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