One year, the daughter of St. Helena superintendent of schools enrolled in the Biodesign Class. Her dad was an avid hiker and she asked The Class if she could invite him along as a chaperone on the Yosemite trip. Relationships between students and school authorities are not always copacetic so I was curious as to how the students would respond. Interestingly, The Class thought it would be a good idea.
After several weeks of planning and preparation, we arrived at Yosemite Valley and set up our basecamp. Plans were completed for our 7:00 AM departure on the Half Dome hike. The trail from The Valley to the top of Half Dome is about 10 miles with 5,000’ gain in elevation. Most of the students had never been backpacking, so carrying 40-lb packs, including tents, sleeping bags, food and water would likely be the hardest physical thing they would ever do.
I mentioned that the hike would not be possible unless they worked together as a team with the bigger and stronger helping the smaller and less muscular. After about 9 hours of intense labor, we arrived at Half Dome’s famous cables. We checked our packs to be sure that all straps were secure. Then we paired off with each girl positioned in front of a guy in case they needed a boost from the rear. In just a few minutes the line of hikers stretched out and looked like a very long inchworm.
The sight conjured up the Ahwahneechee legend of Totookanula, the humble inchworm that climbed the massive Yosemite monolith named El Capitan. By working together, and with much exertion, the hikers arrived at the top of The Dome. Those who reached the top first cheered each pair as they arrived. All backpacks were quickly dropped and a spontaneous group-hug occurred.
As the sun set, the 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy began to emerge into one of the greatest stellar spectacles that few people will ever be privileged to see. Although we could not spot Andromeda, astronomers currently believe that there are trillions of galaxies in the Universe.
The next morning was greeted with moans and groans as most of the students (and chaperones) had difficulty standing or walking. Although descending the cables was treacherous, we reversed the order with the guys leading the girls for safety reasons. The 10-mile descent was much easier except for the extra weight that raised havoc with our knees. Otherwise, the hike was uneventful until we were about 2 hours from our basecamp.
And then, we were beset by a typical autumn, Sierra Nevada thunderstorm. The clouds roiled up, the wind began to blow and rain started to come down in sheets. By the time we arrived back at camp we all looked like drowned rats. As we entered camp I shouted, “find the closest tent and hunker down until the storm passes!”
Thankfully, the storm passed and the dinner crew emerged and began to prepare the evening meal. In about an hour they presented a wonderful supper for 30 hungry hikers.
The next morning, we packed our gear, struck our tents and headed home. We had planned that, in order to save time, we would skip breakfast and eat brunch at a restaurant in Oakdale, Ca.
I was sitting in a booth with the superintendent and other chaperones and I casually asked him what he thought about the sleeping arrangements. He looked puzzled and asked if I could be more specific.
“Well,” I said, “if you recall, in the chaos of the storm, I suggested that the kids grab the closest tent and hunker down. This resulted in some boys and girls sleeping in the same tent, what do you think about that?” “Hmm, I hadn’t thought about it,” he replied, “I’ll need to think about it a bit more. Can I get back to you in a week or so?”
After we returned home, the students were given two weeks to write an expository essay describing their adventures. Unlike most writing assignments, the students were eager to share what they had discovered.
Typically, the essays were extremely well written; some could have been published in a Nature or hiking magazine. Several times, when a student read an extraordinary line, classmates interrupted and blurted out, “That’s exactly how I felt, but I could not find the perfect words that you used!?
Perhaps, not surprisingly, the subject of the co-ed tents arose. We had discussed the school protocol and the students suspected that I might attract some flak for the event. It became a perfect learning opportunity to invoke Plato’s concept of “platonic love.”
There are a number of characteristics that distinguish platonic relationships from other types of relationships. In addition to the lack of a sexual aspect, a platonic relationship also tends to be marked by:
Both people in the relationship feel a closeness to each other and feel that they share things in common.
Both individuals feel that they can share what they really think and feel with the other person.
These relationships tend to feel easy and comfortable. Both people feel that they are safe and free to be themselves.
People who share a platonic relationship have a connection, but they also recognize and respect each other’s personal space. They don’t try to force the other person to do things they don’t want to do or be something that they are not.
These relationships are often spiritual in nature because they do not have the encumbrances that are inevitable with physical contact.
Although they may have not cited Plato, they intuitively grasped the intimate nature of the concept. Although climbing Half Dome was a physical event, it involved a spiritual transformation that led to a mystical place where labels like age, gender, race, religion, teacher, student became irrelevant.
After two weeks passed, I received a call from the superintendent who said that he had written a paper and would like to share it with his fellow campers.
The students were ecstatic to hear he was coming to class.
He opened his essay by thanking them for welcoming him as a fellow pilgrim, which made him feel extremely privileged.. He eloquently described the high points of his experience, which brought several students to tears. He concluded that he thought he was only going out for a walk, but it evolved into one of the greatest events of his life.
As a postscript he added:
“When we were at the restaurant in Oakdale, Lowell asked me what I thought of the impromptu co-ed tent sleeping arrangements. I needed time to consider it and this is my conclusion. By that time in the trip, the kids had become as close as brothers and sisters without the typical bickering and rivalry, so the arrangements seemed quite natural.”
With that, the students cheered, gave him a standing ovation and formed a line to give him a platonic hug.