March 2019 – Page 3 – WildernessPunk

WildernessPunk 6/12/17 Glenwood

To reach Glenwood New Mexico, from this hidden river/forest paradise, one has to leave the Apache Nation and travel through a hundred miles of high desert forest. Then you drop down thousands of cliff covered feet into the arid jagged rock which rings the west side of the Gila Wilderness.

Our little group of adventurers left the forest later than I would have liked, but ended up discovering the hotel we stayed in last time was condemned. Found a newly renovated place and strangely spike the high life in the middle of potential future tribulations.

Glenwood ghost

Almost nothing in the way of business is alive in this shady ghost town. I have been coming here for over a decade and each time I see it die in stages. First time, both the hotel I stayed in and the lonely lost tavern I enjoyed, both gone. The only store in town, now gone. This trip. Sad attempts at restaurants leaves only a single pizza parlor open three days a week for four hours a pop.

Glenwood Bar

Odd to see things go ghost in just part of your lifetime, but shouldn’t this mean the rent would be cheap here? Desert shade and hey a river runs through it. Sure, a lack of money or any normal type of job might slow me down, but hey. Still, when the reality store says open, but the dust covered door is locked, it might be hard to find an angle.

The one thing which is progressing in this town is the recently remodeled, Los Olmos Lodge. One can tell a lot of love, thought, and sweat went into making a relaxing gathering of cabins near both the river and several frog covered ponds. I love my frog friends. With this couple striving to open a restaurant and re-open the general store, they have more work ahead. Yeah, I offered to help, but might be taking nine months before the caretaker’s job opens. Ergg.

Glenwood swamp

Is there such a thing a fate? Why were my thoughts drawn here so often over the past few months? Still the nearest place to buy beer is 20 miles away and uphill. That could prove pretty rough.

Funny how me staying here today is a reality check of sorts. There is no place to buy food, ale, or anything else. If I didn’t bring it with me, I don’t have it. Unless I go hunt wild game, going to be hard to increase the larder.

Life without a store… (Or I have food I bought at a store with me.) still feels weird to need to stock up, not be able to, but yet be in a place where people live. Look there goes two now? I wonder if they brought their own dinner?

Glenwood pool

Could this be what civilization means. Spending money on food. Maybe it just is that simple. Water, food, shelter.

I have some cans of food several years old, which have already been used today. Another odd thought, I worked for a company, I haven’t been with for over a year, but today, I will be surviving off this old effort. It’s my older son’s 6^th birthday weekend and he’ll have a few days in the rough lands, half steaming desert and abandoned shops with a little pool time thrown in.

Glenwood Green

So I’m shutting this down so I can live off the corpse of my former life as this place of luxury and fun battles against the tide of the crumbling forgotten years which surround it.

Glenwood Stage

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this.

Glenwood Frog

WildernessPunk 4/17/17

Oh gentle readers, I suppose I’ve been neglecting you, not that many will notice and less will care. Still, WildernessPunk, the idea one can survive without most of the mundane expectations of the day. It focuses on helping the environment by using less processes and items which destroys the land and instead living closer to it. Getting more involved with nature, while using less of what kills it. Can such a concept work? Like most things in life it is more a matter of greys as opposed to a pass/fail black/white idea.

Sand Face

This explains the Wilderness, but what about the punk? Originally, I was trying to live in the wilderness, while creating the funds for doing so with my writing and internet work. High tech creating the means for living low tech. To be honest, I think some of this has dropped off, although I have gone a whole year now without the dregs of an 8 2 5 job, so I’m living some sort of ideal, now if I can just figure out what the ideal is.

Trail

Maybe a few updates are in order for the eight of you who have followed WildernessPunk over the second half of 2016 and into 2017. Maybe just some bullet points would speed this up.

I’m seeing my kids.
For the first third of 2017, I got a job which ended up being ridiculously awesome. I only worked about one day a week at it, but made a few hundred dollars an hour while doing so. I got to travel around Arizona for free. Not great places unless you like places like Yuma and Phoenix, but what the hell.

Now however the steel teeth of reality’s beartrap is closing in on me. Boy, wouldn’t it be great to be a writer or a guy who could survive by working on the internet in the woods or at home? I’m clinging on with my toenails, but the grim figure of mundania lurks outside the door ready to kick it in.

Dusting

So what new concept are you going to discuss this time, Mr. Bone?

Environmentalists.

Unless you’re Donald Trump, or have a black heart full of hate, (wait, same thing) most people you ask, “Are you trying to help lessen your Negative Environmental Impact (NEI) on the environment?” will answer, yes. But what does it take to be really be helping or be an environmentalist? I hesitate to use the word environmentalist, because it has certain defined conditions. So just to insure we do not make any Trumpers nervous, in this one case, let’s just say Environmentalists are people trying to live in a way which creates less damage to our world.

Let’s look at a few categories. Those bullet points were fun before, let’s use them again.

End Game Recyclers: These are the folks who separate their trash, bring it to the curb, and then hop in their car to go buy a new set of lawn furniture.

Recycle

Privileged Purchasers: These people feel they are ahead of the pack because their new custom made home has an energy efficient dishwasher and since they have solar power, the average person could never hope to be as cool to the environment as they are.

Cherry Picker: These are the people that pick an item or two, usually something easier for them or what they want to do anyway, then elevate themselves above anyone who falls short in this category. Sure, every positive thing you do helps, but helping the environment does not stop because you bike commute or have become a vegetarian.

Power Shoppers: Folks who might do some of the above, but then consume and consume. They buy new things while the old items get tossed into the landfill. They recycle their plastic, but purchase so many groceries they produce five time more trash than they can recycle.

The list could go on, but I think you have the idea. Does an environmentalist complain their neighbor is not buying new yard furniture fast enough or maybe dumpster dived an old frame and uses it as a couch, for a few extra years before he burns it in his wood stove?

Quite often environmentalism isn’t pretty. A plastic covered garden instead of a water hogging green lawn, might be an eye sore to some, but we need to rethink what an Environmentalist really is. Is the inner-city professional who votes blue and has all their food transported hundreds of miles to them really better than the red voter who just hunted a deer and made himself a hundred meals without the use of chemicals or animal farms.

CB III

Driving and spewing poison in the air, so you can take your Sunday walk through the woods, seems like a contradiction. Yet, this is so much of what we see in this country.

What am I trying to say? I am saying we need to rethink what an Environmentalist is and what it takes to be one. Again, it is all a matter of greys, but if your only making it to the 5% mark, you need to reevaluate where you stand. We also need to rethink what we can do. Is having a pristine yard and worrying over what your neighbors think more important than global warming? Are we just going to pick a few things to make us feel better and then ignore the rest of our destructive behaviors?

Beer Sunglasses

No one can be perfect unless you head off into the woods and become a hunter/gatherer, but disregarding that, we need to look at our environmental impact holistically and also not judge others who live closer to the earth and have not bothered to lower the water table by keeping a perfect lawn in the middle of a drought, because, let’s face it folks, we are all in a drought.

Boneman

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this.

Blur Art

New Year: WildernessPunk

I sit for a moment in the airport. Big beer/Small Salad. Pausing, I try to think on what the New Year will bring. What will it mean for me and the rest of the people and animals wiping around the universe on this giant glowing ball of life.

seattle-fish-market

Sitting within such a crowded place teeming with people tends to make a person humanocentric. I think most of us tend to be this way more often than not. Whether for good or for ill, our lives circle around the importance of our own species. I suppose we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for this, since I’m sure bobcats mostly think about bobcat things, and sharks do their own dance through the depths.

Yet this type of thinking gets us into trouble. On the money-making side of the street…what do the homes of field mice and birds matter if I can convert this stretch of forest into an apartment complex and make 500 grand. “Hey, don’t come down on Mark Moneybags, he’s creating jobs too.”

graveyard

I also don’t intend to let liberals of the hook. They make layers and layers of rules and regulations in the hope of perfection through litigation. “Oh, we need to stop bullying and there was that extreme example of Blah so let’s rake everyone through system who does 5% of Blah. We created all these jobs to monitor Blah and even though it isn’t a problem most of the time and is happening less than ever through the entire history of humankind, they have to justify their salary somehow. Guess what, whether those kids were bullied in fourth grade or not, won’t really matter in sixty years when they’re rotting away.

Why search for perfection in a social environment? Because the population is growing so large we’ll all soon be sharing a bed? Why be so selfish your needs trump the needs of the environment and animals. I suppose we all do it, the animals do it too, they just aren’t as good a destroying the world as we are.

lancaster

Are you expecting an answer from me? There are a hundred, maybe a thousand answers. There is an issue though. We are bombarded with all the things we can do to help ourselves and the world. Usually we pick the easiest thing for us and then harp over how big a difference we’re making.

I’m a vegan, so it is okay for me to commute 50 miles five days a week. I’m a bike commuter, so it’s okay for me to eat steak. My new 500,000$ home has an energy efficient dish washer. Well guess what, fuck you, if you even bother mentioning this to me. You can commute by bike to work, be a vegetarian, have a compost pile and still have a negative Earth Balance.

Hey wait, what, did MDG just make up his first new term of 2017? Well yes, I did.

Earth Balance: The balance between the positive impact and the negative damage one commits against the True Environment.

The chances are…you, everyone you know, and possibility everyone you will ever meet will have a negative Earth Balance. It might be possible to have a positive Earth Balance, but even that could be nebulous. How many whales would you have to save to cancel out 10,000 miles of car exhaust? Such things might be a subjective and difficult thing to measure. Perhaps and activist who saves 200,000 acres of forest in Alaska could sit on their laurels and make it to the grave in the positives, but let’s face it, the vast majority of all people in every country take far more than they give.

troll

An interesting side note, on an individual basis, usually the less money you have the less you pollute.

More vehicles = more CO2
Buying more food (And Meat) = more waste.
More vacations = larger carbon footprint.
Better jobs/better housing = Longer Commute
More machines = less things done by person/animal power.

Face it, those folks washing their clothes in the stream are kicking your ass.

So how can you increase you positive Earth Balance in the New Year? Is it even really possible? Well first off, of course it is. You could sell everything and start growing crops. You could donate money to the nature conservatory. I’m not telling you to do that, but if you aren’t bed ridden, we all CAN make changes, but if you have a good job and three kids, we need to be realistic, right? No…Yes. Do we?

Remember I’m not trying to tell you I’m perfect, but I am willing to think outside of the death machine. Together it is possible. What we think is impossible can be the possible. What will be your first step to help our wild?

bone-desert

For a while I’ll remain a very hard man to track down.

light-at-the-end

You can grab some Skinjumper-Punk here and help support your friendly WildernessPunker

sweet-dreams

Year’s End

I sit alone within a darkened house. Outside the rain washes over the deep green moss which appears to cover most of the exposed stone one sees in Seattle. I am back from a city hike. I return damp and revived. Like a forest within a city, I sit for a moment alone and dry within a city of unknowns.

tree-fern

Fitting I should end the year exploring and enjoying a city new to me as I live one more week of WildernessPunk, urban style, in 2016.

seattle-hood

I could review the concepts I brought up over the last five months or I could wax on about the promise of a new year, but I don’t feel the need to trail down tired roads. Besides as far as I’m concerned, the New Year started on the Solstice and we’re already a good week into 2017.

alien

One thing I will bring up is a few numerological aspects of this New Year. 2017. For me it will be the only year ending in 17 which is the day of the month both me and my lovely daughter were born on. 2 + 0 + 1 + 7 = 10, which it the number of Hecate the Goddess of the Crossroads, Choice. She is also the Goddess of Law, Will, Economic Plotting, Magick, Royalty, Witches, and Charisma.

hecate-owl

I have a few ideas and projects I’m ready to evoke during this upcoming year as well as a ‘To Do List as long as the arm of Titan.

needle

Funny how we can’t help but conceptualize the New Year as a new chapter. A fresh chance to make changes or different choices about our lives. Things we want to do and habits we no longer wish to indulge in occupy our minds. A time to start and yet a time to finish. Often, they quickly become empty words, but many of us try again and again.

Does the Maid, Matron, and Crone offer any guidance for you? Can you hear the words of the eternal Goddess or is that your cell phone beeping?

maid-matron-crone

How about WildernessPunk? What aspects of living closer to the earth can you embrace this upcoming year? How close to True Environment can you get? What could you do to help the Earth or at least minimize your part of tipping her into oblivion. Is creating 60% as much trash as the average person instead of 80% really going to cut it? Is it good enough for me? Is that good enough for you?

Are you wondering what my goals could be? I guess this is my blog and you managed to get through a page of this action…

I have a 1000 goals. This is a bit foolish, but exciting as well. Turn in to see which 100 I’m able to pull off.

And what are you going to do?

carrie

For a while I’ll remain a very hard man to track down.

captain-boneman

You can grab some Skinjumper-Punk here and help support your friendly WildernessPunker

teminator

I’m Back the Return of WildernessPunk

Hello again, surprised to hear from me? I know I’ve happily spilled all sorts of jargon about the integrity of WildernessPunk and I still believe in what I have said, unlike the vast majority of our current politicians. But if there is anything I learned from this last election, truth, decency, and consistency are not considered important to most people living in the USA. Hell, if Trump can lie through his pouty lips and still get elected, why shouldn’t I be able to write about WildernessPunk from this rat room which keeps a ceiling over my head for another two days?

tucson

First off, let me piss off, well almost everyone. In some respects, I’m happy Trump won. No hate mail yet, hear my out. I always knew this country had a slimy underbelly of horrid people and it took an ass-clown like Trump to help us determine how bad it really is.

Trump is like a bug exterminator who, instead of bringing poison, covers himself in dead meat and candy. All the human cockroaches filled with racism, entitlement, and hate rushed out of their dark corners and latched onto him. Trump didn’t create these people, he gave them an avenue where they no longer felt they had to hide their true selves and let’s face it, their true selves suck.

trump

Of course, not every Trump supporter is an evil, bigoted a-hole, some may have voted for him for reasons other than an agenda of hate, yet we still have to come to grips with the fact millions of people voted for a person who has no one’s interest in his heart other than his own.

Still, let’s back up a little. Oh yee of the left. Did you think there would be no consequences to your ever-constricting noose of political correctness? Did your concept of urban intellectual superiority and your removal from the people who struggle in the earth for a living work out well for you? All of you thought Hillary would win, didn’t you? Because you live in your own circles of self-indulgent rhetoric. You see things improving…getting better, but then you kept pushing, every increasingly obscure scrap of ‘God is Dead’ let’s replace his books with what we feel is correct and if you don’t like it, you’re a backward primitive.

politically

Guess what, the ‘backward primitives’ won. You pissed them off for so long they all poured out to vote for this one. Finally, a man for the people who hates the people.

But again, the veil is down. We elected a fascist. Mostly politicians try to hide their fascist leanings, but Trump just came out with the ‘why bother’ technique. He took a gamble. He believed there were enough people full of hate for their fellow humans he could just come out and be honest about his evil tendencies and policies and win. Hey look, he was right.

So, what does this mean? Are we all just puppets to the wealthiest one percent? Well yeah. Money runs things and the amount of money and power some people possess now is truly sickening. Everything else is just a joke. Issues are used to distract or fulfill an agenda. We are all so polarized we don’t notice the world creeping towards its doom while we scream at each other. And as we workers do this, the elite sits back and laughs and laughs.

pychoville

Despite his endless lies, in many ways Trump may be the most honest man we have elected. It’s all out on his 10,000$ sleeve. He’ll send drones to blow up families with a heart full of glee and then brag about it. He’ll remove children from their parents and have people tortured and make no excuses. Laws and decency mean nothing to him. He is the pure id of the 1% exposed.

So, I ask you one last thing. If he feels safe showing this country his true self, what does this say about the rest of us?

trump-women

I’ll make sure I’ll remain a very hard man to track down.

electric-forest4

You can grab some Skinjumper-Punk here and help support your friendly WildernessPunker

skinjumpers

Okay,One More… WildernessPunk

Alright, so I said the last post might be the final WildernessPunk post, at least for a while. On a side note, it has been odd not writing them. However, as plans go I think I won’t be accumulating any bad karma or letting down my integrity by completing a few aspects of the WildernessPunk theme. Either I’m wrapping it up or setting the stage for a new beginning. I guess time will weigh in on which direction it goes.

yellow

Yet although a few things of note have occurred, WildernessPunk was never intended to be a dairy, so for this post, I’m inclined to just let the pictures speak for themselves and let your imaginations fill in the rest.

ballz-fire-castle%ef%bb%bf

For any fact lovers out there, the Wilderness part of WildernessPunk slowed down officially on the evening of Sunday 10/16/16. I got a place of sorts coming full circle to the rat-trap I first stayed when I migrated out of the woods and back into Fake World after all Hells had broken loose for me in April.

wis

I sit and pace in the shabby, but feel a little happy. For some reason this place gets AMC and I’ve been twirling through a Walking Dead marathon, getting my Rot on, while working on my own Zombie Apocalypse fiction. I never saw season 6. (Hard to get that done when all your possessions are removed and you live in the forest.) So, it’s been a triple layered climax as I go through the first five, then a season I didn’t see, and the first of a new season tonight. I’m nerding out a little, but hell I haven’t watched television in over half a year.

rick

I would say something along the lines of it’s the little things, but this isn’t little. Some of the scenes in this show have hit me in the gut with a sledge hammer. When Rick and Carl are reunited with baby Judith… I look it hard core.

So what’s worse than the Zombie Apocalypse? Answer… our Legal System. At least Rick gets to hold his baby.

rick-judith-carl-hugging-the-walking-dead

I had another epiphany since the last post, which left an impression. I managed to see MDC, Millions of Dead Cops, Multi-Death Corporation, Millions of Damn Christians etc. Two songs they sung affected me.

mdc

The first was Dick for Brains.

“Oh baby, I love you true, I’d do anything you want me to, but why, why? Dick for brains. Dick for brains Why am I so insane. Let you give me a golden shower, but why? Why? Dick for brains.”

mdc

And I thought, this has been my theme song for too long. It’s time to change the paradigm or perhaps I already have.

Then conversely, I heard them sing Selfish Shit. “I take what I want or else I throw a fit. I don’t care who I take it from because I’m a selfish shit… welcome to the living Hell I create.”

mdco

I wonder who that song reminds me of?

Are you wondering how strange is it for me to return to the land of heat, toilets, and showers? I suppose it’s not as strange as me feeling guilt over it for some reason. Part of me honestly feels like I’m letting myself down. I know I could hack sleeping outside for at least until Thanksgiving. It makes sense when I have all these lawyer meetings and court dates, but those are slowing down to a trickle for a few weeks.

little-c

I might be getting a few paying gigs where I’ll have to do my singing and dancing of informative chaos for people, though, so perhaps it might be for the best. Well not really, but at least I’m not bumming showers and having tense mornings while I tour from mini-missions to mega-missions.

entering-tunnel

One thing remaining consist is my solitude. No children of course, other than my lovely daughter living overseas. When your let loose in the world, events often force you into social interaction if you are lucky enough to have good friends. (Read, “Can I take a shower, dude?”) However, when I have my four enclosed walls I have to force myself to go out and interact. But don’t worry too much… I do. It’s just weird to have more choices again. That and being able to stay up past 7pm.

too-dark-to-write

It comes down to this. I enjoy putting my words into action and a really, really enjoy not being a part of this system of bullshit. Okay, I know I’m still part of the system, but I like it to be as minimal as possible. I dare you to measure my carbon print.

electric-bike

This election makes it easy to be an anarchist. Being exposed to the pure insanity of how unfair our legal system is, makes me want to run into the woods screaming. It’s tough to be right all the time, but it’s easy to forget how unfair the world is when your fridge has a few days of food in it and you are watching a movie while drinking a cold one. Yet, step out of line and you become a method of production for the system to leech off.

boneman-beer-cave

No new taxes, unless you count creating huge fines needing to be paid for non-crimes and unsubstantiated lies.

bones-cave-beer

I may be getting dragged back in, I might end up with a few new bear traps on my nethers, but let me say here and now, I’m feeling done with the chaos explosion of humanity and the rules it feels obligated to create to keep the clogs in line. You might see me, hear me, cuz I love my people, but I need my TAZ. (Temporary Autonomous Zones)

chaos-sign-rabbit-club

Oh crap, TAZ. I forgot about TAZ. I might have to toss up another post. Sorry, but I have a duty, an obligation, or perhaps just an unrelenting desire to spew. If the bullshit isn’t done, then neither am I and since it will never be done…

Neither will I

digs

I’ll bet I’ll remain a very hard man to track down.

shabby-and-scary

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Balancing Bone

The End of WildernessPunk?

Okay, so it is not like I haven’t hinted about this. Everyone has pluses and minuses in Life. Responses to responsibilities, gifts and people gunning for them. Okay, maybe you don’t have all those things, but I do. If it was just me, and I’ve said this too, I’d be off so deep, I’d be losing the punk, but instead, since I’m not as free as I could be, it looks like I’m closer to losing the Wilderness.

Wildernesspunk 1.jpg

And I fucking hate it.

wildernesspunk-2

I’m not a wimp and I’m not bowing out because I want to. I could keep on going. Fuck this bullshit flowing in all directions around me, once humanity is involved, um… do you see who’s running for president? I’m so ready to throw in the towel on this modern world of crap and eat ants, but I’m a father and my kids will end up tortured and insane if I don’t do everything in my power to fight back against the lies, the system, and the darkened evil thrusting me into this situation in the first place.

wildernesspunk3

Okay, a little focus Boney. So besides what may or may not happen, I need to think about the viability of WildernessPunk. What allows it to exist and what pushes it into the realm of watered down hypocrisy. Believe it or not, I have some integrity. I wouldn’t feel proper writing about WildernessPunk while sitting in a heated room and watching the rain crash against the windows.

wildernesspunk4

So what’s a Boneman to do? I don’t want to drop the flag of WildernessPunk, but then again, I have no desire to be a poser, spewing about experiences and such which aren’t real, let alone challenging. I know I tend to wax on about concepts which could be considered around a warm wood stove, but I think some of the impact of WildernessPunk has been knowing I’m writing in the woods and posting the blasts while resurfacing within Wifi-ed coffee shops and pubs.

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Is there a middle ground? What would give me the right to continue? Is living in a rat bag hotel close enough? …Naw. Crashing on a friend’s floor? …closer. Can I pick it up if I head into the woods for a weekend? …Maybe, but it still lacks the impact of taking a long term commitment to the low tech surviving from high-tech model.

wildernesspunk5

Perhaps I can finish the horror and free my balls from the bear trap, so I can start again. It very well could happen and it might end up being more intense.

Another option could be starting up something new, something different, something… but damn it I really enjoy the whole WildernessPunk concept, from top to bottom, it’s rewarding while being challenging and fuck it, it’s mine.

Okay, Boneman, time to get it together and Constantly Kick some Ass in a new way. Maybe gear up some in the process. Living minimalistically might be romantic and certainly easier to roll around on a mountain bike, but one of the advantages of falling back into the real might be an ability to gear up for a more serious exploration of WildernessPunk. Having Hot Spots, solar charging, and maybe even a tent, might change things. I could go deep, but still be e-jacked.

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So instead of the woods, I sit here today within the Hotel Monte Vista. The leaves of gold falling like snow over the wet streets. One more night, then a new page.

wildernesspunk-88

I’ll bet I’ll remain a very hard man to track down.

wildernesspunk8888

Grab some Skinjumper-Punk here and help support your friendly WildernessPunker

wildernesspunk-88888

The Nature of Nature in WildernessPunk

Since I promised you, my gentle reader, I would cheer up at the end of my last post, I’m going to discuss the nature of Nature. You’re all well aware there’s little which cheers me like Nature.

sharestorm

We already discussed the theory of True Environment. True Environment is an area which would be the same whether or not humans existed. So obviously the areas of Alaska’s interior would be damn close to 100% True Environment, while the average street in the Bronx might get about 2%.

Disregarding those extremes for a moment, let’s consider a typical western home. Does shutting oneself within a box completely cut you off from Nature? Could it be that having plants, pets, or even photographs and art count as something? What if one opens a window? Are we closer to nature now?

tunnel-entrance

Enter the back yard. Plants are there, often arranged by human hands, but behaving naturally. Perhaps a pair of birds twitter in a tree as a bee comes by to investigate your shirt. I think it all helps. Humans need grounding.

tunnel-light

We have been removed from the animal, from the environment, and told it is okay, in fact the more removed the better. Air conditioning is way better than a swamp cooler and if you live in Phoenix and don’t have either, you’re considered a loser and DCS will be on their way to take your kids. Make more money, so you can have a bigger home, and have more rooms between you and the outside.

electric-bike

And what does Nature mean for most industrialized people? Maybe you might go jogging down a trail which has seen a hundred thousand footfalls. Or perhaps you will save up some money to have an allotted nature experience and travel to an endorsed, Nature Zone, to view some wonder next to two hundred other people and then go home.

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Have you ever considered humans only focusing on humans and human inventions is a little strange? Maybe it’s good to experience things where we’re not 100% in charge. Let’s consider two scenarios.

tunnel-ii

Scene 1: A couple grabs their wallet, gets into their heated car, and goes to a restaurant. They know around what the bill will be, they pay it, and return home.

couple_dining

Scene 2: Couple rides their bikes out to Walnut Canyon. Makes their way into the canyon, perhaps walking where no one has for decades. It starts to rain, so they hunker under a cliff and eat a few power bars. The sun is starting to get lower in the sky, so they hurry back to their bikes and rush home.

walnut-canyon

Say both couples have to return to work Monday. In scene one, they reinforced nothing but human based valued and felt almost no aspect of the True Environment. Group 2 though, they placed themselves outside of the world of human.

They challenged themselves, yes. They experienced more of the True Environment, yes, but what is the difference for them?

It is so easy to accept this artificially created life and feel it is normal, even though 90% of what we do every day has only been possible for a few generations. How real is something which has only been present for .000001% of humanity’s existence?

“Well, of course it’s real, dummy, I’ll prove it to you. Look my Netflix account works just fine, let’s pick which one of these thousand movies you’d like to watch.”

Let me just ask you this, if we are focusing 90% of our time on things that didn’t exist a hundred years ago, what 90% of our lives were replaced? Many of us feel wounded and confused in life. We muggle through our jobs and relationships while always feeling like there’s something missing. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is that 90%.

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I hope I got you thinking a bit. Drop by Flagstaff and I promise I’ll take you into Walnut Canyon.

skinjumpers

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Homeless

I think there comes a time in every survivalist, nature poet, mountain man, and off the grider, where they wake up and contemplate whether what they’re doing is as good as it gets or if they are just another homeless loser. It doesn’t help that you could probably be quite a few of those things, pro and con, listed above all at the same time.

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There is also a tipping point where friends, allies, and family are happy to be part of the adventure, but then begin to wonder how far one will take things. I’ve been beyond blessed over the last few months, but there’s a time the worrying begins.

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WildernessPunk along with many other more natural pursuits, tend to challenge the status quo, also known as a person’s Cultural World View. CWV is, in as few words as possible, the way a person puts together their world. They create a framework of what is normal, right and wrong, fun and boring. It is a belief system. Opinions can be shared, many of us agree on certain issues, but like the whirling ball of chaos we all are, rare will we find a person who agrees on all our beliefs. Hell, if I get over 50% I know I’ve found a friend.

This could make me a harder person to spend time with right now. I’m just walking down a dirt road while others rip by me in their cars. This also means my current lifestyle confronts others, who are remaining within a system which most of us hate. I find I have a little awkwardness with some people as well. I didn’t have to wake up this morning and deal with an annoying supervisor and repeat some task I’ve already done a few thousand times. I’m not taking care of anyone’s needs either. I mean hey, I do things to help people all the time, but those are like giving gifts instead of often thankless routine.

Conversely, I’m living with less than anyone I spend time with. A LOT less. I have very little cash, I’m not eating as much as the average guy, and well, I have almost no possessions with me. I’m also riding my bike sometimes 20 miles a day. Networking. Writing. I feel a distance from the rest of the humans in many ways.

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Yet in other ways I’m closer to many of my friends than I have been in years. Certain barriers and obstacles are down. I feel free to be myself and with most of the people I spend time with, my new found time has renewed my life and I’m able to make stronger connections.

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However, perhaps one of the biggest differences is the new Bell Curve of my life, which is alone versus diving into large social situations. Whether it has been family, friends, or events, I’ve been spending loads of time with others and having often more fun than I’ve had in long years. However, this is also tempered with whole periods of being alone. Sometimes I don’t see anyone for days. Even when I come into town, I will spend hours alone in some public spot writing.

I think this, at least for me, massive amounts of alone time also sets me off from most of the folks I know. In case you might not have realized, it’s an odd thing to spend two nights alone in the woods and then ride your bike 15 miles into town for a dinner party. It’s all good and fun, but those are harder gears to shift through than seeing half of the people all week at your job and then having a beer with them around the BBQ.

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So what am I bitching about? Isn’t this the exact principle WildernessPunk is based on. WildernessPunk: A man can survive and enjoy living in nature, but still be part of the e-world. Or more simply, a person could live in both worlds.

Let’s just say, I’m noticing the more challenging aspects. I think of such things as, “How different would it be if this was my land?” But again, that’s the first trap. Mine, not theirs. It’s the way of the predator.

WildernessPunk is the mouse.

And a mouse makes his own house. So a mouse is never homeless. And I brought a tortilla for Lucy so hopefully she won’t bug me tonight. Signing off from Cammmmmp 1

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We got through another touchy subject, I promise to embrace Dionysus more next time so swing back by in a few days.

dionysus_bacchus_greek_god_art_11_by_valerhon

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sundown