I remember working too hard, cognitively, to find my “solo spot” on Vision Quest. First I went straight to the top of a mountain, and claimed it. Then I gave myself a lecture about being a Straight White Guy taking control of the top of a mountain and how arrogant was that and yada yada, and I decided I should banish myself to some valley area. Later, I got clearer, and more aligned, and I realized “You can be a knucklehead on the top of a mountain, or you can be aligned and respectful on top of a mountain. It has nothing to do with the mountain.”
I ended up on top of that mountain, and it was the correct place to be. It is humbling, and it puts you on the edge of that part of the earth, and you can’t get too full of yourself on the top of a mountain in the dark without a tent…
–Jim Nolan
President
Southwestern College
About the Moderator
Jim Nolan is in his 6th year as president of Southwestern College. He has worked for a dozen universities or colleges, both online and on the ground. He holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, and attended graduate school in English/Irish Literature. He reads a lot of books, takes a lot of photos, plays guitar, got married in India in 2010, and has a wire haired fox terrier named Barney. He is the opposite of a guru, whatever that is called.
