WORKS

teammates

Irresistibull’s Magic Milo

Virgil

If you haven’t read Virgil’s story, you still can…

And while you’re at it…

The main reason is because the walkers keep appearing, (saw another one a couple nights ago, going South) this in rural Pennsylvania. People carrying their belongings in sacks with no itinerary beyond general direction. Refugees escaping urbanity, or something else. South is a prudent decision this time of year.

But there’s something else going on. Walking is the purest form of transportation and as long as we are able, always at our disposal…for health, for leisure or for escape. People seem to be escaping a lot nowadays for all the reasons mentioned in all manner of ways. Extended walking is transformative, and the refugee inhabits a world of heightened awareness, close to the bone, close to the miraculous.

Virgil makes a visit into this post to promote walking, and to tell the story of the walking stick…

since sticks are made here. We didn’t stage Virgil for a photo, he was simply preparing to be on his way. The two of us worked our magic to produce something from nothing. We did that with full knowledge and awareness of a natural order that provides for the wayfarer. The walking stick has been around as long as people have been walking.

Now Virgil is no amateur walker, and the writer has walked thousands of miles as well as backcountry ski and snowshoe travel. A ski pole is an improved stick but always a stick no less and to the initiated more than just a stick but an extension of the body. There are times when the last thing one wants is something in the hands (like in a fall) and if a stick it must be light yet strong and an aid to travel, not a burden.

Trained in Appalachian post and rung as well as master woodworker, my stick is very simply purpose made, every aspect tested and proven to be the finest walking companion. Sassafras split and sculpted from mature trees the wood itself has a storied history which includes magical powers, a healing tonic, used for the making of prosthetic limbs and once exported widely on and on. Its strength to weight is remarkable since it was riven and strongest as a post, the form pared down to its simplest, when used properly it swings in the palm and plants with great precision. Weighing in at ounces means it quickly becomes intuitive and effortless. Seen a lot of sticks, mine are the best for walking.

Wood comes from trees, which are living things made up of cells like other living things. Working wood is a destructive process, the greater the process the more removed from the living tree. We are vandals. Doing less is artful. Here we rescue the tree instead of harvest, use hand tools instead of power, eschew all finishes leaving only the surface left by sharp edges, no sanding, (the cleanest of all finish) the cells of the tree are next to the skin, the wood like bone. Nothing between the walker and the stick.

But a stick doesn’t walk on its own, and these sticks are walking, right now, some of them long distances because they are made for that purpose, for the long-distance walker.

Virgil is holding Shadow Stick because it tells time and brings good luck, it might very well be his final possession since the road is a harsh environment where paring down and simplifying equals survival. Who knows, maybe you’ve seen him.

As for my sticks, they are all the things not there that sets them apart.

Just wanted to talk about sticks, like em’ a lot.

Anyway, here’s a Dead Strings recording copyrighted circa 1985, recorded in the usual terrible manner.