Mastering Anger with Stoicism: Finding Calm in the Unknown

In today's fast-paced world, it's not uncommon to find oneself grappling with feelings of anger without a clear understanding of the source. The confusion and frustration that accompany these feelings can be overwhelming. However, the ancient philosophy of Stoicism provides a roadmap to navigate these turbulent emotions, offering tools and insights that remain strikingly relevant today. Drawing on Stoic principles, let's explore how to manage and understand unexplained anger.

1. Focus on What You Can Control

One of the foundational teachings of Stoicism is the distinction between what's within our control and what's not. When anger arises without a clear cause, remember that while you may not control the emotion itself, you can control your response to it.

2. You Control How You Respond

Your reaction to anger is a choice. Instead of being swept up by the emotion, take a deep breath, and decide how you wish to proceed. As the Stoics believed, our power lies in our reactions.

3. Interrogate Yourself: Put Yourself Up for Review

Ask yourself: Why am I feeling this way? Is there a hidden trigger? Self-reflection is a powerful tool in understanding our emotions. Delving into your feelings can often illuminate the hidden sources of your anger.

4. Don’t Suffer Imagined Troubles

Sometimes, our mind amplifies situations or creates scenarios that don't exist. Recognize if your anger is stemming from imagined slights or hypothetical situations.

5. “The Best Revenge is Not to Be Like That” – Marcus Aurelius

If someone else's actions or words have triggered your anger, remember that responding in kind only perpetuates the cycle. Choose a higher path.

6. Focus on Process, Not Outcomes

Anger often arises from unmet expectations. Instead of fixating on outcomes, focus on your actions and behaviors, which are directly within your control.

7. Find a Way to Love Everything That Happens (Amor Fati)

Embrace every experience, even anger, as a part of life's tapestry. Each emotion is an opportunity for growth and understanding.

8. Journal

Writing can be therapeutic. Documenting your feelings can help in understanding and processing them. Over time, patterns may emerge, providing insights into triggers and effective coping strategies.

9. Prepare for Life’s Inevitable Setbacks (Premeditatio Malorum)

Anticipate challenges and setbacks. By mentally preparing for difficult situations, you can face them with equanimity and grace.

10. Ego is the Enemy

Recognize if pride or ego is fueling your anger. By keeping our ego in check, we can approach situations with humility and openness.

11. Stillness is the Key

In moments of anger, seek stillness. Whether it's through meditation, deep breathing, or simply taking a moment to pause, finding inner calm can dissipate the intensity of anger.

In conclusion, Stoicism offers a rich tapestry of wisdom for managing the complexities of human emotions. When faced with unexplained anger, these principles guide us towards introspection, understanding, and ultimately, peace. Embracing the Stoic way doesn't mean suppressing emotions but rather understanding and channeling them effectively.

Hatch's Cave List

I almost lost my cave list a month ago when Google did something strange. I was able to recover it after spending several hours looking at the cache. It's backed up at several spots now, so hopefully that won't happen again. 

I haven't been to a new cave yet this year. I need to change that soon.

  Hatch's Cave List

New Book: Acetylene Gas

 At the recent NSS Convention I met several authors who are also cavers. One of them was Dwight Livingston, a caver from Maryland. He read an excerpt to us.

From the Description:

"Young teacher and historian Terry Potzlikowitz suffers an unlikely home improvement accident and finds himself pitted against a gang of desperate project cavers deep inside the largest cave in the world. Alone, offline, often close to death and worse, he improvises and perseveres in the harsh underground. For Terry, gear and technique go only so far, and survival is more a question of spirit and resolve.

A caver's fairy tale, this humorous novel explores a fictional world, one that pushes the envelope of nature to extremes but stops well short of the supernatural. The fairy here is a small mammal. The monsters here are humans with suspect motives, and a cold and indifferent universe. Can Terry learn to survive in this odd and useless place, and can he win the respect, and perhaps the hearts, of the caver community that inhabits it?"

If you're interested in a book with a lot of caving, written by a real caver, check it out.

Choose Fulfillment Over Happiness

In our journey through life, it's important to reconsider our aspirations and shift our focus. During this time of reflection, we often receive well-intentioned yet outdated advice, particularly when it comes to our careers. The idea that happiness should be our ultimate objective has been ingrained in us, but some experts argue that setting our sights on fulfillment is a more valuable pursuit. Here's why. 

The Pitfalls of Chasing Happiness 

The conventional notion of happiness is often tied to achieving specific goals or reaching significant milestones in life, such as landing a dream job, owning a home, or getting married. The problem arises when we associate our happiness solely with these external factors. This mindset can lead to disappointment because our happiness becomes contingent on acquiring and maintaining these conditions. In reality, true happiness cannot be constantly pursued—it's already within us. 

Why Choose Fulfillment Instead Contrary to happiness, fulfillment is not a finite destination. It is a continuous journey that involves living a meaningful life aligned with your values. Pursuing and engaging in things that you're passionate about and truly matter to you, such as traveling, cultivating hobbies, contributing to causes you care about, and nurturing meaningful relationships, can bring fulfillment. 

The Pursuit of Fulfillment Opting for fulfillment rather than chasing happiness offers several advantages. By embracing fulfillment, you can better cope with a range of emotions, including disappointment, sadness, loss, and anger. The ability to experience a wide spectrum of emotions enables personal growth and resilience. Instead of fixating on an elusive state of perpetual happiness, you can appreciate the richness of life's ups and downs. 

Embrace the Journey When you focus on fulfillment, you can create a more gratifying and sustainable life. By dedicating yourself to what truly matters to you, you'll find a sense of purpose and contentment. Embrace the diverse array of emotions that life presents, from joy and excitement to boredom, disappointment, sadness, fear, anxiety, and even embarrassment or shame. Remember, fulfillment is not a fleeting destination; it is the ongoing pursuit of a life well-lived. As you navigate through your own personal journey, consider shifting your perspective from seeking happiness to prioritizing fulfillment. By doing so, you'll embark on a path of self-discovery, growth, and genuine satisfaction.

Important Note: There are people in life for whom the Destination is more important than the Journey. If you are one of those people, embrace who you are and ignore all of the advice I gave here. Being true to yourself is ultimately more important.

Cave #42: Snail Shell Cave

Jack and I woke up at 7:30 this morning and headed out, stopping first at Waffle House in Hermitage for a quick breakfast then heading down 840 towards Murfreesboro to meet John, Joe, and Mason at the SCCi Snail Shell Cave Preserve. John had organized the permit, and we all made it to the parking area at roughly the same time. After taking about half an hour to get ready and get our gear together, we started toting kayaks down the trail to the sinkhole entrance, which is several hundred yards away.

I had been to the edge of the sinkhole late last year just after dusk, so I didn't get a good idea of the size of it back then. It's about 125 feet across and drops about 90 feet into a large open area at the bottom. Basically a large section of the cave collapsed here a long time ago, and so you can go upstream or downstream from here. Both ways go for miles.

Our goal today was to go upstream. So Jack, Mason, and I headed down into the sinkhole while John and Joe stayed up top to lower the kayaks down. To walk down to the bottom of the sink you go down a narrow trail counter-clockwise around the sink. I wouldn't call it dangerous, but it was a little intimidating to Mason, who just turned 8 yesterday, but once Jack started helping him out he quickly got the hang of it.

Once we got down there Jack and Mason explored the downstream passage a bit, and reported seeing a lot of crayfish and almost a dozen black and spotted cave salamanders.

Jack and Mason at the Upstream Entrance

John rigged up a rope along with a rappelling rack and the the five kayaks started coming down the side, along with a large canvas bag of oars, life jackets, and other assorted gear. While we were getting the kayaks positioned in the water just inside the upstream entrance, I pushed Mason's kayak along a rock channel and it slid just enough that it hit the water and started going down the passage. So then I had to get mine in the water and go fetch his. It was the first of several misadventures for Mason and his kayak that day.

Soon we were all ready and we took off down the passageway. I've been on almost seventy cave trips now and this was by far one of the best experiences I've ever had. The passageway is 8 to 10 feet wide and about 15 feet over the water, which is not super deep. There's almost no current in the water right now since the water level is down, and it made for a very easy float. It twists and turns a bit so you have to watch out constantly or you'll get too close to a wall, but it goes for about 2400 feet with no obstacles whatsoever.

Jack, Joe, and John getting ready at the entrance.

Eventually we came to a small pile of breakdown in the water so I stopped and scouted it out since I was in front. It looked to keep going so we started portaging over it at that point. As soon as I got in on the other side and went about 10 feet, I could see we probably weren't going much further in the kayaks since there was a solid wall of breakdown ahead. While I was waiting on the others, Mason suffered his second incident of the day when Jack accidentally hit him in the lip with a paddle. Fortunately it was not very hard and no real damage was done.

Once we got to this second point, since I had already slipped once and gotten pretty wet I got out in the waist deep water and helped everyone else get out and was marshaling the kayaks down below. At one point John started calling me the Harbormaster since was trying to get kayaks stacked up and tied off to something. I eventually got them grouped up and roughly tied off and we started exploring beyond the breakdown.

The Harbor

At that point in the cave it makes a sort of loop, and Joe and I went off to the left where there was some really nice flowstone formations that Joe took this picture of me in front of.

Alan admiring a really pretty flowstone formation

Eventually we reached another deep stream passage with no other ready ways to go. It probably would have been possible to portage the kayaks to this part of the stream, but it would have been pretty labor intensive and gnarly at best. So we decided to rout at that point. I got back into the water at the harbor and helped everyone get into their boats, then just decided to wade my kayak across. Turns out there was one deep spot and so I was swimming with my kayak and Swaygo pack for a bit.

Once we were headed out Joe wanted to snap a picture of us so we all turned out our lights. After that we all left them off for a long while except for Jack who was in the lead. It was pretty cool paddling for so long in the dark. John had something on the back of his helmet that glowed slightly so that helped as well.

The picture Joe took as we were heading out. It is a great representation of the size and appearance of the passage that goes on for almost 2400 feet back to the entrance.

Once we got back to the entrance, Mason and I explored a bit of the downstream side of the cave. He was trying to show me something in the water and I slipped and we went down together on a flat rock. I did all kinds of contortions to keep from landing on top of him and managed not to, but he still hit his knee pretty hard and I could tell he was in some pain. He's a real trooper though, and we after we got back on our feet we explored another 100 feet or so before we came back. That side has some really nice semi-dry rimstone dams.

Jack started heading out of the sinkhole almost as soon as we got out of the water, and John and Joe headed up to get ready to do some hauling. Mason stayed down in the sink with me and pretty soon the rope came down and we started hooking up the kayaks. The first three went up just fine, but while Mason's blue kayak was on the way up and we were hiding under the ledge we heard someone yell something from up top and then a slight thump. Then a blue kayak fell out of the sky and hit the rocks almost in the center of the sinkhole, landing with a loud thump!

I looked right at Mason after it landed and his eyes were wide and I thought he was going to be really upset. I walked over and looked at it and it only had a dent in the keel near the bow. He was relieved and I shouted up that everything was OK. Joe was about to come back down but I yelled up and told him there was no reason to come back down, but just send something else I could use to attach the rope to the eyehole since the handle was now missing. They sent down some extra webbing and an extra locking aluminum carabiner. I ended up using the carabiner to attach the canoe to the rope, which was probably the safer option anyway.  We later found the broken handle and the small rope had just snapped. Joe and John told me later that the kayak got stuck at the upper lip and when they yanked on it hard it came up and stayed on the ledge for half a second before going back over the side. John was quick to yell "Roooocckkkkk!" which is what we heard but couldn't make out.

Soon enough we had the rest of the kayaks and the bag of gear headed up and we all got back to the vehicles safe and sound. Joe, Jack, Mason, and I had the traditional Mexican food after the trip in a nearby restaurant.

Cave #18: Camps Gulf Cave (Second Visit)

The Nashville Grotto had originally planned to visit Camps Gulf Cave in Van Buren County, Tennessee on July 13, 2019 but the trip leader decided to change the date to the next Saturday. I had been looking forward to going and had already gotten a permit for that day online, so when my friends Zeke and Calla told me that some people from the Spencer Mountain Grotto were also going to go that day I decided to go with them and still plan on going the next Saturday as well.

My trusty "Cave Mule" Jack decided he didn't want to go to the same cave two weeks in a row, so I headed out of the house by myself about 8 am and met up with the group at the parking area just after 10 am. Marion O. Smith, Zeke, Calla, and four other people from the area nearby were already there. They waited patiently while I got ready, then we headed up the 3/4 of a mile trail to the cave entrance.

I had visited the cave over 12 years earlier, and the path up to it seemed to be less of a road now and more like a well hiked trail. We knew there was a group of people from Georgia Tech somewhere ahead of us, but we didn't see any sign of them on the way up to the cave.

We wasted no time heading into the cave, and were soon headed up the hardest part, which is the climb up through the breakdown to the first big room. The Georgia Tech group had left a hand line at one of the more exposed climb ups, so that made things a bit easier. It wasn't nearly as hard as I remembered from 12 years ago when I was about 35 or 40 lbs heavier and in worse shape than I am now.

The relaxing sounds of Marion's grumbling followed us up through the pile of breakdown, and some of the folks were having more trouble than others. At one point while he was about to come up through the narrowest spot Marion said "whose blood is this?" We didn't know, but that part of the cave is basically a cheese grater, so it could have been anybody's.

Eventually we all made it up to the top of the breakdown in the first room. Off to the left and down below we could see the Georgia Tech people sitting around near the stream passage. We never got any closer to them than that. After a while Marion and his friend June headed back out of the cave, and the rest of us continued on towards the register and the second room. We spread out a bit but eventually we all made it to the third room, which is the furthest I have now been in the cave. Once I got to that point I felt like I was probably approaching my limit for the day, so I sat about halfway up the huge pile of rocks in the third room for a bit while Zeke and Paul and his son went looking for something they were calling the Tennessee Rock.

Zeke takes a break deep in the cave to try to call John Hoffelt for directions.

After we made it back to the second room, which has a large stream passage on one side, I decided I wanted to try to make it back to the first room by going that way, instead of climbing back over all the breakdown again. Zeke opined that he thought it might have a good bit of water, which might even require swimming. I decided to give it a try anyway, and Zeke also decided to come along since he had never attempted it either.

We headed down towards the stream, crossing over a large patch of mud which contained a lot of organic debris like dead leaves and the like. We looked out over a long lake that stretched down some large borehole. It wasn't clear enough to see how deep it was, so Zeke said "I'll head down there and see if I can tell how deep it is," and started climbing down the rocks.

I decided to just come along myself and was following pretty close behind him. As I was hopping over some rocks right on the edge of the water, I slipped and went feet first into the water.

"You ok?" asked Zeke.

"Yeah," I replied. "By the way the water is deep. And cold."

I just started swimming at that point and a few seconds later Zeke jumped in and immediately started complaining how cold it was. It's not like I didn't warn him or anything.

We swam for about 50 yards, occasionally running into rocks under the water and sometimes just barely being able to touch the bottom. We hauled ourselves out of the water on a very large bank of mud. Zeke was able to climb up it fairly easily, but it took me a while to traverse along one bank and reach a much larger mud bank that lead up to a horizontal crack that presumably led towards the first room.

At this point things got pretty comical. I spent the next 15 or 20 minutes trying to get up this bank of mud, but my legs were getting weak and I was wet and it was one of the most miserable, slippery situations I've ever been in. At one point Zeke found a triangular rock and we tried to dig out some foot holds, but it was so slippery that I couldn't even stand in one place without slipping and sliding back down towards the water. Eventually I made the decision that I was wearing myself out and I'd better conserve what energy I had left, so we made the swim back across the lake and back up towards the first room.

It had been quite a while since I had to swim in a cave, and it wasn't until the second trip back across the lake that I remembered the best way was to grab my Swaygo pack by the closing buckles with my left hand and stretch it out in front of me and kind of side stroke with the other hand while kicking as best I could with my boots on.

I had to stop a few extra times on the way out of the cave because the arches in my feet cramped up, but eventually we made it out and that 3/4 of a mile hike feels like 3 or 4 miles when you're coming back down after a long cave trip.

Marion and most of the others were waiting impatiently for us at the parking area. They had just about decided to take Zeke's truck and drive over to Rumbling Falls to pull some rope, but we got there just in time to stop their dastardly plan.  Calla, Zeke, and I headed back into Sparta for some much needed Mexican food and Dos Equis.

I got home and I was bruised, sore, bleeding from several spots,and my feet were still cramping pretty badly. What a great freaking day it was! I can't wait to back again this coming Saturday.