My reflections....merely reflections. On one hand, newer searchers want to learn, to hunt, to be the best at the hobby that they can be. To jump in with both feet as quickly as possible. But true, to be good takes experience and time. Although Deedle & I have only found 10 boxes (as compared to people in the 100 + club) we can already tell just how much better we are at interpretting clues. We enjoy and reflect on everything we learn the more we go out & search (ie, ALWAYS take water with you, no matter how short a search you think it will be!). On one hand, some would probably consider us still newbies with a small found count, only been actively searching for about a month now. On the other hand (and I now have three hands, but I AM a doodle bug) we did find out about the hobby about six months ago, and we spent those months learning about stamp carving and where to find clues and what's "expected" when you find a box (and waiting for Ohio's snow to melt). So who's to say
when one leaves "newbie" status and becomes an "elder"...from our experiences on the trails, it's more of an internal journey. Moving from "newbie" to "experienced" is something that you must determine yourself, no one else can for you. You can't necessarily go by number count -- one person may have found 50 boxes, another only 15, but if every one of those 15 were mystery boxes with hard-to-decipher clues as opposed to the 50 more-easily interpretted clues, who has the more experience? And on another hand ;), if you rush to get that high count you miss what I've interpretted the whole point of letterboxing really should be...not to find hidden rubber containers and fill up your logbook, but to explore new places you would never think of, or didn't know existed.

But the real paradox I find about letterboxing is getting started and the secret nature of boxing. In the spirit of letterboxing, one might think that someone who truly "gets it" would appreciate the hunt for the hows and whys of the hobby. But, it's also nice to have mentors, people to help you when you're not sure where to find the answers. That doesn't mean spoon-feed, but point us in the right direction. I'm greatful to everyone who has helped Deedle & me get started in letterboxing. If it really were as much of an undercover, secret society as I've inferred from some posts on this list, then what's really the point? Letterboxing is social, otherwise why would there be so many letterbox gatherings? Because we do want to meet each other and hear each other's tales. The more people who letterbox, the more people to meet. As someone put it in a previous post, we really do need to help pull people up with us. Otherwise it will be very lonely at the top. That doens't mean
drag them along, but point them in the direction so they can get their on their own.

And that brings to the final paradox, if everything about letterboxing is a hidden mystery, how does one even find out about letterboxing to get started in the first place? :) (Ours was that we stumbled upon a clue in cyberspace)

Now everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya! (Oooh, has anyone done a Kumbaya letterbox yet?)

Doodle Bug.




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