The Definition of Success

What is success? By certain measures, the Adirondacks is a place of failure; the soil isn’t particularly good for farming, mining worked for a while, but veins of iron or other minerals were so localized that men searching for minable material needed some serious help or a stroke of luck to find anything. The weather in the Adirondacks is harsh. There is no shortage of trees for logging, but there is very little virgin forest left, untouched by logging, wildfire, or storms. The charcoal industry moved in and then declined again. Trapping was prevalent for a time and now suffers again.

            By economic, commercial or financial standards, the Adirondacks might not seem like a place of significant success. However, certain historical figures such as John Brown, the famous abolitionist, stand out. John Brown moved to the region following an anti-slavery project, called Timbuctoo, which attempted to settle freed African Americans on Adirondack lands and give them a shot at a sustainable lifestyle. John Brown was a failed farmer, tanner, and merchant, declared bankruptcy and spent much of his life in debt. Yet, he was considered by some to be a strong leader and achieved a certain degree of political success. John Brown was involved heavily with Timbuctoo (which eventually failed) and the Underground Railroad, before his stand at Harper’s Ferry, which was technically also a failure. John Brown paid for his failure with his life, as did some of his sons and other followers. Yet through all these failures, some consider him to have lead a successful life, especially in the view of Northerners. Indeed, he did achieve historical infamy.

            Events like Harper’s Ferry and the Potawatomie Massacre aside, I think the lesser-known Adirondack-John-Brown legacy still speaks on Adirondackers today. Is it possible that success can be something that doesn’t have to do with money in a society so entrenched in the corporate world? John Brown and his family certainty lived no degree of financial security and achieved no economic success. His success was elsewhere. I would be willing to guess that many Adirondackers value success outside the cash flow as well. Living in such a less-forgiving landscape, perhaps success to these hearty and rugged folk comes in finding how to live and work with the land, or making meaningful connections to friends, neighbors and strangers, alike. Making the most of the life we are given doesn’t always have to mean making the most money, even though history tends to favor such stories anyway.

Source:

Banks, Russell. Cloudsplitter: A Novel. New York, NY: HarperFlamingo, 1998. Print.

Terrie, Philip G. Contested Terrain: A New History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks. Blue Mountain Lake, NY: Adirondack Museum, 1997. Print.