Wagon Train
It was the final night of the week-long residential program at The Monroe Institute called Heartlines, early last month. We were sitting in circle, nearly 20 of us, going around saying whatever came to us. I had thought of an analogy to what we were doing there, and so I shared it. I recreate it here, more or less.
Last year’s professional division meeting had felt like a meeting of an Indian tribe, an extended family that would separate but could expect to re-gather periodically. Heartlines felt more like being part of a wagon train.
Starting in the 1840s, people began to walk or ride 1500 or 2000 miles from the middle west across the plains to the ocean, ending in California or Oregon. They would begin as soon as the ice broke up on the rivers, and continue week after week, till nearly autumn. Some rode horses, some rode wagons, some walked, some, we are told, even pushed wheelbarrows all that way.