I was recently reminded of the word “portage”, which is the necessity to carry a boat on land between navigable sections of a river or between two navigable waterways. As a documentary watcher, I have a vivid memory of portage from a documentary about Teddy Roosevelt and his post-presidency trip down the Amazon. It seems intimidating and exhausting and fraught with the unknown.
Portage is a fascinating contradiction in terms, isn’t it? You’re traveling by river but you have to suspend river travel and hoist your boat onto your shoulders and carry it – for instance, past some rapids or a waterfall that can’t be navigated safely by boat.
Do you feel like we’ve all been portaging since March 2020? I do. Doesn’t it seem like we left our predictable and navigable river long, long ago? Doesn’t it feel like we’ve been carrying our collective boat for so long that we won’t ever see a river again? In fact, just when we thought there was a navigable river up ahead, we heard the sound of more treacherous rapids that can’t be traversed by boat, thanks to the Delta variant.
But here’s what I like about portage. Despite the picture I inserted, I think of portage as a group of people carrying the boats rather than each person hauling an individual canoe. Portage is a much more manageable enterprise when everyone helps carry the boat(s) – and to my mind, that’s been an essential strength at ACC since March 2020. We have all participated. We have all helped take on some of the weight. When someone gets tired and needs a bit of a break, others have shouldered a bit more to allow rest for their colleagues.
I’m know I’m straining the metaphor at this point, but I think it’s so important to acknowledge our collective and extended portaging. Our backs may be tired, our arms may be weary, we may long for the next navigable river, but we keep on trudging. And we trudge along because we believe in our mission and we care for our students and our colleagues.
Portage only works if everyone is going in the same direction, and we have leaders who set the direction and constantly check with us to see how we’re doing, what we need, and how we can keep moving forward. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and our capacities for continuing forward, even in the face of dangerous rapids and thundering waterfalls.
So thanks to each of you for helping ACC move forward. We can’t do it without you. Every contribution to the continued portaging of ACC matters and is appreciated.