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Copyright 2002 Team Building in the Wilderness
Darkness I dislike flashlights in the wilderness. Flashlights kill night vision. More important, flashlights isolate from the environment; all one can see – all one can sense – is within a single narrow cone of light. Outside that cone of light is nothingness, and that is scary. Walking with a team in darkness in the wilderness – ften called a night walk – has a number of benefits. If the team members are inexperienced – or, indeed, even if they are experienced, but have always relied on flashlights – our innate ability to navigate in the dark can be revelatory. We tend, in daylight, to rely almost exclusively on our vision. Walking in the darkness brings into sharp focus the contributions of all our senses – vision, hearing, smell, even our ability to sense minute changes in air pressure as we approach an object in the dark. Walking in the darkness overcomes fears – fears which are in fact exacerbated by reliance on the illusory security of flashlights. And, in some primal way, walking with a group in the dark brings the group together. Members of a group walking together in the dark rely on each other, have to trust each other to make sure no one gets lost or left behind, overcome fear together, triumph together over an ancient enemy. | |||||
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