Epicycles

Yet another in my intermittent ramblings from over the hill. In case you've not met me yet, I'm Greg Moore, resident old-fart. These articles I write to fill my time and fill your head with useless ideas and facts. Or perhaps not so useless. You decide for yourself.

I've been with the outing club since the fall of 1985, when I was a freshman. Of course back then things were different. For example, the glaciers were still retreating and we would often go glacier skiing down Congress St. But, now sunlight actually makes it to Troy once in a while.

Seriously though, you'll see people sitting in the back row of CC330 (or wherever the current meeting is) who have been associated with the club for an average of 10 years or more. In fact, if you total up our years associated, we've been associated with the club for longer than it's been around. (See how meaningless statistics can be, to quote Mark Twain, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics.")

Last time I wrote about the 10,000 Maniacs song These are Days. This time I want to write about Epicycles. What are Epicycles you may ask? You probably recall the pre-Galileon idea of a geocentric system. The problem with this system is that it couldn't fully account for the motion of the planets. Planets at times would appear to stop, back-up and then start moving forward again. The idea of the planet revolving around a point in its orbit was introduced. This solved some problems. Yet, it still wasn't accurate enough. So the idea of the planet revolving around a point that was in turn revolving around a point in its orbit was introduced. This was better, but still not accurate enough. So yet another epicycle was added. This continued for quite a while until the radical notion that the sun was at the center solar system was introduced. In a flash this obliterated the need for epicycles. The math fell away and everything was made simpler. Ironically, it turns out that epicycles weren't entirely wrong. In fact, mathematically it turns out that they were actually an infinite series that accurately described the elliptical motion of the planets.

Epicycles were the right solution to the wrong problem.

What does this have to do with the outing club? Well this past weekend I've seen a lot of cycles. Within my apartment, a furious cycle of people moving in and out has taken place. Stacy Smyth, a former housemate was moving back in, this time with his wife. Friday night I again went to Schoharie Caverns, a cave that I had remembered as extremely boring and as a waste of my time. Pleasantly I was wrong. It is also a cave that I first took Stacy into. Watching him labor over a few of the rocks and stuff, I thought it was a mistake. Now I know... after all he's a park ranger at Wind Cave National Park now. In turn I've seen Stacy take a beginner caving who now studies cave formation as a graduate student. Makes me wonder what beginner this time will end up as a serious caver. And of course, having only one exit, makes the trip through the cave itself a cycle.

On Saturday evening, I went to the Mother's show. Last time Barbara Bailey Hutchison was here there were 15 people in the audience. I knew Mother's was in trouble. This time, there were over 60 people in the audience.

On Sunday when I lead my hiking trip, there were several cycles. I returned to the place I went to high school. The particular hike I had hiked at least twice before. On top of this, the hike was a big loop, or cycle of sorts, not repeating any part, but ending up were it started.

Yet, all of this could be the wrong way of looking at things. While parts of my life may appear to be repeating, I'm moving on. Things repeat, but I look at them differently. My first caving trip as a freshman is far different from my caving trips now. Then I was a novice, now I'm a leader in the club. When I started as a freshman, Mother's was some mystical place I could go for music. Now I help run it as an alumnus. My high school has changed. And each trip back is different.

Coming up in a few weeks is Fall Lake George. My ninth FLG that I'm attending. Wow, I write that, NINTH, and really wonder. In that time I've seen FLG shrink from 150 people (60 from RPI) to a low of 60 people (5 from RPI). I've also seen it grow again. As different people join and leave the club, the style, presence, enthusiasm, size, etc. of the club changes. And I like that. It's not static. Each person in the club has the opportunity to make a difference. I've seen the meekest quietest freshman come in and become an officer, or a trip leader. It's a place to grow. I've seen people at the top of the rope, ready to rappel off the Union scared stiff, afraid to tackle their fears. But once they've done so, I've seen them grow. I've seen this happen over and over again. So, while I see the cycles, 9 years of them now, the cycles apply differently to every person. Each person and each cycle is uniquely its own.

I can tell you what to expect from the club: learning the various activities the club explicitly teaches; such as caving, hiking, canoeing, x-country skiing and more, and the implicit skills it teaches, leadership, learning your limits, learning others limits, having fun and being safe in the outdoors, learning a respect for nature and more.

Perhaps you'll go on to lead an expedition up Mt. Everest, or teaching white-water rafting for a living. Or, perhaps you'll still be an engineer, but you'll have an appreciation for the outdoors. That I can't tell you. It's up to you to make the most of it and make the club yours. The cycle is there, but you can make it unique.

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