Note: This blog post is a notable departure from the usual programming posts I tend to make. This article is one that I wrote for the Art Of Manliness Lessons in Manliness group writing project. The goal of the project was to write an article about a man in your life that taught you a valuable life lesson. In this case I chose my grandfather. Although it was conveniently timed for the project, it is an article I was wanting to write anyways, after being inspired by so many other stellar articles on the Art of Manliness blog. Enjoy!
Lessons in Manliness: A mountain of a man – Bob Powers
Written by Justin Powers
My grandfather (Robert “Bob” L Powers, 6/7/1924 – 9/11/2002) was born in the beautiful and serene Kern River Valley in the majestic Sierra Nevada mountains of California. He was the 5th generation of his family to live in the Valley. He was born the son of a rancher, and spent his young days learning about the family trade. At the age of one, his family made their yearly trip up into the mountains to set the cattle loose in the high sierra grazing grounds. My grandfather made the 50+ mile trip on the front of his father’s saddle. He was later told that he kept kicking the horse in the shoulders, nearly getting them bucked off several times. He was riding a horse on his own at the age of three.
Over the course of his life, my grandfather fulfilled many roles. He was a rancher for quite some time, working on the farm and driving the cattle into the high country every year. He served in the U.S. Navy (although he didn’t last long due to a sleepwalking problem). He was a ranger in the Forest Service for many years, where he was regarded by all as the one that insisted on doing things the right way, the first time. He was also a deeply virtuous man. His loving marriage to his wife of 50+ years will be long remembered as the highest standard of a loving marriage. He touched many lives during these years, although it is his later acts that make him truly remarkable.
In 1965, during my grandfather’s work in the Forest Service, he was approached by a stranger that was publishing a so called “mug book”, where a family would be able to purchase a page or two to write information or stories about their family, in order to preserve their heritage. It sounded like a swell idea to my grandfather, so he took this man around to various families and old timers around the valley. The stranger gathered the stories and information from these people, and collected the fees for publishing the book. Shortly after collecting all this, the stranger disappeared, taking $175,00 with him, and leaving the stories. This broke my grandfather’s heart as all of his friends had trusted him with their money and their heritage.
He decided there was only one thing to do. He told his friends that he would gather some information and have someone write it up. It would be a publication, rather than a book. However, he just couldn’t find anyone that would write it the way that he wanted it to be written. So he sat down and started writing a book about the history of the valley, compiled from the stories he had collected, along with his own knowledge, and conversations with others. It soon became apparent that all of this simply wouldn’t fit in one book, so he wrote several books, each concentrating on a small but valuable piece of the valley’s rich heritage and history. The books contained stories of stagecoach robbers, that would lie in wait for unsuspecting travelers coming through. He told of the pioneers and ranchers, that fell in love with the area’s flowing rivers, and fertile soil. Then there was the 49ers, that came in droves driven by the promise of gold. The cowboys, and their deep relationship with each other and the land. The Indians, with their rich culture and near-forgotten practices from before the coming of the white man, continuing to their mixed relationship with the white man, and how it occasionally turned violent. There are stories of feuding families, and lawmen chasing outlaws that would make the greatest John Wayne movies seem boring in comparison. All of this was printed alongside original photographs and journal entries of the people that made up the valley’s heritage.
As he started to write more books, people began to give him more stories and pictures. After he had finished the first five books, he started on another. He told his wife that this would be his last book. He continued on to write more “last” books, up to the final total of 9 books.
Bob Powers died on the September 11th, 2002, the anniversary of the WTC attacks. Many found this to be somewhat poetic, given his strong patriotism and love for his country. Immediately following his death people from all walks of life came together to try to find a way to honor his memory. A group formed to begin work on naming a mountain in his memory. Overwhelming support was given in the form of letters of recommendation to government officials from the Forest Service, California congressmen and assemblymen, historical societies, various indian tribes, as well as numerous teachers and representatives from the local school district, who used his books to teach history to the schoolchildren, just to name a few. Reading through the list of supporters gives a profound sense of the impact he made on other’s lives.
On August 14th, 2008, the US Board on Geographic Names unanimously approved the naming of a previously unnamed peak to Powers Peak. This is the day that I first considered my grandfather to be a ‘mountain man’. In a state that has borne many people that go on to become presidents, and yet do not get their own mountain, my grandfather, son of a rancher, and a man of little means, has had such a profound impact on so many people that an entire mountain was named in his honor.
It is beyond my skills as a writer to express the profound impression this had upon me. My grandfather was never a great leader, never had a high level job, and never did any of the things that many of us think about when we ponder the meaning of success. Yet in his simple life he managed to touch so many lives, that something so eternal and unmovable as a mountain was given his name. He simply had a deep and undying love for his God, his family, his friends, his valley, and his country. He never hesitated to do what he could for those that he loved.
I will likely never have a mountain named in my honor. I also would not like to. However, I often wonder if I have the integrity and strength of spirit to become that mountain man that my grandfather was. As I write this article, I begin to search for the key attributes that make a mountain man, as demonstrated by my grandfather.
Unconditional Love
My grandfather had 5 great loves in his life: His God, his wife, his family, his country, and his valley. I’m of course not talking about the romantic passionate love that is all the rage in the movies. I’m talking about a sincere, dedicated virtuous love for those things that you hold important. Aristotle referred to this as “Philia” love. In his work Rhetoric, Aristotle defines this type of love as:
“wanting for someone what one thinks good, for his sake and not for one’s own, and being inclined, so far as one can, to do such things for him”(1380b36–1381a2)
His undying love for each of these was an integral part of what I believe made him a mountain man. That unconditional love led him to perform such selfless acts as spend 35+ years painstakingly cataloging and conserving the history of the valley. In today’s world, love is often exchanged in return for something else. We will only love someone if they do things for us or treat us a certain way. In watching my grandfather’s life, he loved because it was his duty, and his calling. And doing so not only touched people’s lives, but it made his own life that much more fulfilling!
In today’s world, love is so often given away with a hint of selfishness. We often only commit loving acts when there is something in it for us. My grandfather’s multi-decade quest to preserve that which would otherwise be lost certainly didn’t make him rich, and consumed a large part of his love. But this quest earned him the respect and gratitude of the entire area.
Integrity
When it comes to the core traits that really make up a mountain man, integrity has to be at the top of the list. Something about standing at the base of a mountain and looking up at it’ permanence reminds me of the kind of unmoving integrity of character that embodies a mountain man. After all, you could have all of the compassion and good intentions in the world, but if you lack the integrity to stand firm in your convictions, what good are they?
Princeton Wordpress defines integrity as “moral soundness”. However, this succint phrase fails to show the full picture of what I believe integrity is. To me, you can sum up my grandfather’s integrity with this one statement: He did the right thing, the right way, every time.
Do the Right Thing
It would have been extremely easy for my grandfather to just be the victim when that scoundrel took everyone’s money. He could have dismissed it and went on with his life. Instead, my grandfather spent the vast majority of his adult life researching and writing those 9 books, as well as finding and donating hundreds of items to the local museum, from pictures, to an old ranch stove, to an entire cabin! All of this came about from one simple decision early on to do the right thing by his people, and to write those books. It always isn’t the easy way to go, especially when it is at the expense of your future, and your hopes and dreams. But these are the decisions that transform us into mountain men.
Do it the Right Way
While in the US Forest Service, a relatively new employee was tasked with the laborious job of creating a barbed wire fence that stretched for well over a mile. He worked hard at his task, and after several hours my grandfather came by to see his work. He took one look at the fence and told the man to start over. When asked for a reason, he said that all of the posts must be driven to a certain depth, and they must all be at a uniform height. The new employee tried in vain to convince my grandfather that the fence was structurally sound, and would likely last throughout the year (which was likely true). My grandfather then explained to him how a little more time spent now would prevent someone else having to go back later on to fix the mistakes. He also emphasized the sense of pride in completing a job well done. That new employee’s entire career from that day forward was carried out following my grandfather’s advice.
Do it Every Time:
Many of us are content to perform some great act of selflessness, and then return straight to our normal ways. After all, we did the right thing, now we deserve some time to ourselves. However, this was not the way that a mountain man sees things. My grandfather was giving of himself all the way up to his very last days, by opening his home to those in need, giving in his church, finding more history that needed to be preserved, and loving his family every chance he got. His selflessness never rested. In our journey to become mountain men, we cannot give up on the doing the right thing, even if just for a moment, for it is in that moment that we fall short.
How to be a Mountain Man:
A stranger walked up to me on the day of my grandfather’s funeral, and said, “Your grandfather was a good man”. Yes he was, but he was so much more than that. He was a mountain man. The great question is, and one that I struggle to answer every day, is what can I do myself to be a mountain man? What have I done to impact the lives of others? Can I be a mountain man? Can you? I believe that in order to become a mountain man, you must truly embody the principles of unconditional love and integrity, and never waver. As men, we are not only able to be mountain men, but are called to it.
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