Arizona – WildernessPunk

WildernessPunk: Punk Rock Prep

There are a lot of depressed, worried, and surprised people these days and they come from both sides of the aisle. The left obviously sees the dark storm clouds of fascist doom encroaching and the right lives from one triggered explosion of worry to the next. Electing their president hasn’t calmed their worries. Let’s face the faces, they wouldn’t have elected him in the first place if they didn’t believe the country was heading toward destruction. tRump’s presence and power proves their manic clinging toward the cementing of their belief that fear mongering should be the guiding force within their lives.

But I have not brought my laptop out of my tattered backpack here, on the edge of the Verde River, in central Arizona, to discuss politics (well perhaps a little) what I want to delve into is Punk Rock.

Punk Rock is certainly one of those things which is difficult to paint one color. Are punks straight edge or drunks, loyal or promiscuous, politically active or miscreates? They are all these things and often none of them. I think Punk originally evolved in a rebellion against established norms which forced creativity to run through accepted channels in which only the smallest of trickles of people were allowed by large corporations to succeed and produce. Punks instead choose to do as they liked themselves and even if your cassette tape was only heard by fifty people in your scene it was enough because it still fucking rocked hard and everyone treasured it more than some top forty crap with a stylized cover.

Good, now that’s out of the way I can get to my point. As people around me panic and dwell in a dark place ruminating over the news and distressed because they feel the government is bad and turned against them, I personally remain unchanged because I’ve usually hated and had little, if no, trust in the government since I was thirteen.

Yes, sure, the government has programs to help the needy (Too many hungry mouths start rebellions) and roads are nicer when they are pothole free. Although I consider myself an anarchist at heart, I understand how constructing a framework of monitoring and control often helps more than it harms. Until you are on the other side of our guns and boy howdy do we have a lot of guns.

Still at a government’s core there are powerful people seeking more power and rich people seeking more riches. Yes, not everyone is a scoundrel, but most of them are. They want to tell you how to live the life they think you should be living. They want you to produce in the appropriate manner. Most politicians come from a background in Law. Laws to make sure you stay within the lines. Try to color outside the lines and you could enter the largest prison system to have ever existed on Earth.

But let me steer this back to my point. Instead of gasping as we plunge toward fascism, I sort of look up from my book and nod, “Hmm, it was always there, just a little more noticeable now than in the last few years.”

The government of the USA has never shied away from being evil. To get my undies in a bunch over something which has always been this way is like getting mad shit stinks.

Could you tell me a time our country wasn’t committing acts of evil?

Here’s a quick overview:

1776-1880 The United Staes committed genocide against the indigenous populations
1776-1851 Slavery was legal in the USA
1898 The United States steals land from Mexico
1945-Present The United States helped Underdevelope countries in order to steal their resources and have the poor provide cheap labor ruining indigenous farming and plunging nations into poverty.

I could go on but to list every war we’ve used to dominate other cultures would take pages.

Again, my point, and perhaps this is just me personally, but I feel listening to Punk Rock and my own research into the history of governmental fascism and control has left me underwhelmed when I see it happening now. What do people expect? We have more people and less resources. We have an environment which is crumbling and each year will be harder to produce as much as the one proceeding it. Add to this the largest wealth gap in history. Elmo Musk had the purchasing power of 30,000,000 families. How many restaurants will he support, how many shoes will he buy? Are you surprised the economy is tanking and businesses are closing when one man hordes the buying capital of 100,000,000 people?

Listen I get it. We always think the years we are alive must be more important and we are experiencing things no one ever has before, but that’s just narcissistic bullshit. Go buy an orange for 40 cents which even the king of England might get to try once in his life five hundred years ago. Face it you still have it better than 99.999999% of all humanity had unless you are one of those people your tax dollars paid to send to El Salvador.

Me…I’m not saying I like what I see happening, that I won’t fight against it, or I won’t try to help my family and friends survive through it. Let’s just say my shock meter is staying at a comfortable zero. I would never have to say I saw this coming because I knew it was already here.

Dak is asked to hunt down renegade clones. His main problem, he’s dating one.

WildernessPunk: What’s Up

I was thinking about how I started WildernessPunk eight, wow, eight years ago. Back then I had lost my boys, my job and everything I owned. I was living out of my backpack and spending most of my nights in the forest. Also, back when I began writing WildernessPunk, it was more of a journal in many respects. I spoke of my daily trails and tribs as well as my numerous travels and adventures, for as I have often said, the people who enjoy the greatest freedoms are the ultra rich and the poor with no strings and obligations.

While I was thinking about how WildernessPunk was originally more personal, I wondered if I could make it so again, but then realized for the present, at least, it remains a poor idea. It isn’t like I don’t have loads of fun and excitement or at least I feel like I do, it just seems like, despite its high points, my life has drifted back into more of the mainstream. Yep, that’s what taking care of two kids full time will do to you.

This in turn got me thinking about social interactions. Have you ever had someone ask you, “Hey, what have you been up to,” and have a hard time answering? You feel like you’re busy and doing a lot, but when someone asks you for a highlight, you realize you can’t think of anything notable enough to answer. You end up scrapping through the last two weeks to try to find something new to discuss or a funny story to tell, but they seem lackluster.

I like to think of myself as a stand up, interesting, funny, and exciting guy. On the day to day, I’m always busy, rarely doing anything like watching television or the like except maybe the last hour of the day while I’m winding down. I haven’t played a video game in 23 years and have started new and continued with many of my older hobbies. I stay creative starting and finishing projects and attempt to help others do the same.

Still, the most productive day in the world can sound boring to your buddy.

AB: “I had a rocking day yesterday. I wrote seven pages and finished a new awning.”

Buddy: “Nice.”

Perhaps it comes down to, and part of me thinks this is sad, human interactions. Humans like hearing about humans. They don’t want to hear too much about a cool lizard you saw, or how you turned a sofa into a table, they usually find the argument you heard in the Safeway parking lot more interesting.

What is interesting anyway? I guess we all think different things are interesting. But even if poker might be one of your favorite things in the world, but you might still not want to listen to another ‘bad beat’ story. Let’s try to break down what might be the general things which most people could consider an interesting topic to discuss.

Ear Perking Topics:

Humor
Stories involving aggression
Relationship tales, but usually the worse the better
Bad luck and injury tales
Crime and drug stories
Politics and ‘us versus them’ rhetoric
And I guess I have to include sports

Think about what sort of things are popular on the various plastic rectangles we stare at. People like supernatural and fantasy shows, true crime, comedies, action, and drama. For most of us these things happen between never and rarely, except for drama and when it comes to our own lives, we usually don’t want it.

One might mention reality shows or all the social media folks just focusing on how great they are. However, things like reality shows are usually just showing the 30 minutes high(low)lights from 168 hours of filming multiple people. Influencers are just giving people 30 second soundbites before they head off to bury their heads in their plastic rectangles for the next four hours.

So how does the modern person overcome this lacklusterness? Being a good story teller helps. I can make my wife laugh by telling her what happened to me in the grocery store line. In general, there is not automatic solution but I do have a remedy of sorts.

I believe the more you do, and getting out of your home is usually better than remaining there for this, the more you have a chance of having something interesting happen to you. Think about it. How interesting is it talking to somebody about how you wasted the last few days of your life on a chair staring at plastic while playing video games, streaming shows, or binging social media. You might have seen a tight movie or really enjoyed a game, but how interesting are those forty hours of video games going to be for anyone listening to you describe it?

Compare this too real world experiences which are usually novel, sometimes exciting, and quite often funny. I’m not saying your trip to Safeway will make your friend laugh every time, but you’re probably more likely to view something weird there than sitting in your chair. Seeing the guy kick his cell phone down the produce alle might not be Game of Thrones, but it was something you saw with your own eyes and it was real. Truth isn’t stranger than fiction, but it does have a lower bar.

Thanks for listening, now go get some air.

If you feel inclined you can check out one of my novels here and I guarantee Dak lives and exciting life.

WildernessPunk: Narcissism, Debates, and Cultural World View

With the first, and probably last of the 2024 Presidential Debates coming up, I figured it would be the appropriate time to dig into the roots of the situation the United States is finding itself in the midst of. In my opinion the voters choice comes down between picking an elderly man which can function given the right assistance and support but will end up being little more than a figurehead during another term. Or we can choose a self serving evil man with profound mental illness who, if elected, will be the oldest president at the start of his term.

Just to put it out there, I’ll choose spacey over evil every time.

I’m also just going to come out and quickly state, voting for a person who has attempted to cancel democracy is an evil act and no, your stupidity won’t absolve you.

But tell us how you really feel…

I’m going to back up a bit. I like debating probably more than the next guy, and I’m reasonable skilled at the art. Just ask the midnight crews around the campfire. However, diving back to the story during the first installments of WildernessPunk, I have lived with an unreasonable narcissist with severe mental illness. Not trying to brag, no just kidding, it was horrible, a true nightmare beyond belief.

However, I learned something during this time, a technique mostly disregarded these days, the ability to not attempt or need to prove you are right. It is freeing to realize you don’t need to prove your point no matter how certain you are you are. This also becomes easier when you’re dealing with people who don’t answer to logic, truth, and reason, no matter how eloquently they are presented.

I might be happy to get into a friendly debate, but I don’t need others to think I’m correct. The world is full of too many illogical people (See WildernessPunk 1 in 3), and I don’t have the time or inclination to educate the corrupted masses. What could I say in fifteen minutes which nine years of evidence couldn’t prove?

So why are people still following the orange monster?

To even the most casual observer, he is obviously a very racist, completely self-serving narcissist. He has no loyalty to allies. No one can work with him for much more than a year. Listen, if you were single would you date someone like that? I know evil is a subjective, perhaps even a religious concept, but by all standard definitions of evil, tRump is a hopelessly evil person. There will be no insight or redemption for this man or anyone who follows in his wake.

So why are people still supporting this horrible candidate who stands against what the US and most religions stand for?

Instead of diving into the propaganda machines and social media, I’m taking another avenue, let’s investigate one of the primary reasons cults work on people over time. Many people who join cults come to a point where they might disagree with a new outrageous tenant or demand asked of them. They might have a severe issue with certain things so why don’t the cards all come crashing down?

One of the primary reason people remain in this disintegrating situation is because deciding the path you’re following is wrong means you have to admit you’ve been an ignorant individual who has made horrible choices for the last nine years and there is really nothing harder for a person to admit. “Not only was I manipulated and wrong, but I’ve been wrong for years and years.”

Could you do it?

Also keep in mind anyone who’s gotten divorced has done it and a lot of people have gotten divorced. Many have escaped cults as well, but they report this is one of the strongest reasons they stayed far past when they should have. Sometimes it was easier for them to double-down despite the ludicrous nature of the cult, than to have the courage to admit they have been played like an ignorant dope for years.

This brings us back to Ernest Becker and his theory of Cultural World View which I have mentioned before. It would state if, let’s say, I try to talk to a tRump supporter and explain to him how he is an evil man in the mold of Hitler, but with only a tenth the intelligence, they will not be hearing my wise words about why tRump is a racist megalomanic who uses the masses like slaves to attempt to get what he desires. Instead, they will become defensive, because since they serve tRump and have chosen him, an attack on their leader will be seen as an attack on them, their decisions, and their lifestyle.

It isn’t so much the man himself as their choice to attach themselves to him emotionally. Since their support of tRump is part of their identity, an attack on tRump is a personal attack on them. If he is determined to be the worst president in modern times, then by association they have become a duped fool. So, they will obviously fight dentures and false nails to defend their mired leader and therefore be the one who, “Sees it how it really is.”

So what is my point here? Perhaps if someone is disgusted by tRump but only watching Fox News, a little data could shift their perspective, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to point out facts to a person who has had nine years to decode something as painfully obvious as tRump is the evil villain in this comic book we attempt to call US politics. If nine years of daily stupidity, insanity, and evil hasn’t proved it, what will me wasting nine minutes do?

However, if it pisses them off and I’m rolling with an icy cold one, I might just do it anyway.

Thanks for listening feel free to add your take below

If you like cyberpunk dystopia tales, please take a second to look over my Skinjumper novel.

WildernessPunk – Restless

I know I’m a lucky guy, an extremely happy guy. Sure, I’ve tasted defeat, drama, and trauma but I’ve pulled through, triumphed, and moved past obstacles which had once seemed one degree below insurmountable. I’m sure I’m not special in this. I would bet most of the people reading have suffered through similar experiences.

I’m not looking to dredge up old nonsense, instead I’m wondering why I’m feeling so restless and antsy lately. If you will allow me to wax personal for a moment, I have a wife sixty times better than I would have thought possible. Every day I wonder how such a fantastic person can even exist; let alone how I could be the one who gets to hug her. I have my children back and they went from traumatized and tortured to doing well and being happy most of the time. I have loads of free time to write, plant, get some carpentry in, and I get to game several times a month.

I’m living a life some people could only dream of, but why am I a little grumpy and oh so freaking restless?

Are there things I once had which I’m now missing? If there is it might just be silly things like writing in a tavern instead of my home or being inspired through homelessness and wanderlust. Why should I need things like waking up in the woods alone or driving through the desert with no destination in mind to ah…free my mind. And it isn’t like my mind isn’t freed. I’m writing this and not working in a coal mine or such.

Still, it’s there. Like an itch in the center of your shoulder blades.

Why, when I’m living the best life I’ve ever had, do I feel, as the 814 crew might say, a little slush core?

Self Imposed Suckage:

I’m going to discuss the past for a moment. Perhaps you can relate or perhaps you’ll think I’m more than a bit nuts. Either way, here goes.

When I was younger, I led a privileged life. I’m certainly not from some ultra rich family, but I had what I needed.

Growing up I always wanted to be tested. I liked to imagine what would happen if I had to face down a bear or a serial killer. Of course, I was tested here and there. I liked to challenge myself. I made my own house in a swamp when I was a teen. I have camped out for ten days with barely enough food and have even run out of beer!

Still, I feel like certain times I have put myself in hard situations on purpose. I could have gotten a great job after college, but what if I tried Meth instead. I’m not trying to rewrite history, but for a long time I only allowed myself to date women who I considered losers because I didn’t want to contaminate a good woman and yep, that became quite challenging.

Punk rocks squats, homelessness, and psycho chicks aren’t an easy path, but I really think a lot of it was testing myself. I’d had it so good, I needed to feel a challenge. I wasn’t able to hunt a boar for my dinner or rescue my mate from cannibals, so I settled on going on a road trip with a bunch of broke unreliable people.

Is any of this making sense to you? Maybe you feel you’re tested enough. But I’m not talking about living from paycheck to almost paycheck or having a shitty job or a crappy partner. I’m looking into the real dirt in your mouth, lost in the forest, type of thing. Humanity can cause you more troubles than a thousand pages could illustrate and yes, human versus human thrills can build character, but there’s still a different type of challenge one feels when you’re in a situation where all the fast talking in the world can’t save you and no one is coming to your aid.

Life Testing Attributes:

More potent if you are doing it alone
Nature is the ultimate test
Naturally occurring tests are better than invented/mainstream challenges (Skydiving etc)
The less resources, the greater the challenge
Both mind and body can be tested

Am I restless because I’m not being tested? Yes, I know I’m tested every day still. However, I think there is a difference between passing the test to be at a certain place at a certain time day after day versus getting trapped in a downpour, in the forest, and trying to make a protective roof out of bark so your laptop isn’t destroyed. How they differ is that one is a test of living through the grind while the other is unexpected chaos which you might never experience again.

Some might argue human situations are chaotic. I could test myself by walking down an alley at midnight and only run into trouble on my eighty-fourth try. Yet this brings up the weakness of human interaction tests. A woman meeting a man for a first date is taking a safety risk, but she could live her whole life without such things going wrong, while nature is more consistent. Every time I hike the Canyonlands it’s going to be hard.

I’m going to give these three types of challenges names and provide a quick definition.

Civilized Grind:

Experienced differently by everyone but usually involves repetitive challenges such as attending work, caring for children, cleaning, shopping, paying bills, and other tasks which keep a household living safely and productively.

Human Friction:

Whether physical or emotional, when someone must overcome challenges brought to bear against them by other humans.

Environmental Challenges:

When one is faced with challenges beyond human control such as the weather, temperature, and the natural setting.

So again, does my restlessness stem fromonly being tested by the Civilized Grind and not enough Environmental Challenges? Human Friction can challenge one too, but often dissolves to mere bickering and splitting hairs over mundainia. Harder human issues lead to stress and more often than not cause more troubled feelings than victories.

As a father of small children and a loving husband, I think I’d hesitate to say, I deserve a weeklong vacation in the forest…wish daddy luck, if I screw up, I’m not coming back. Also, long solo drives into the backlands seem inappropriate somehow. I’m not just risking myself. Not to sound egocentric, but my family needs me.

So what is an adventure seeking, but busy and responsible, WildernessPunker to do?

Here are a few ideas I have thought of which helped.

Bring the party to me.

Figure out a few ways to supply enough action that a few folks are willing to cruise over.

Construct things on the cheap

Make supplies/objects for yourself with reused resources in an environmentally friendly manner.

Embrace your creative drive

Whatever it is, feed the fire of your creative goals, dreams, and projects.

These are just a few ideas which help me keep restlessness at bay, but I think I’m still going camping anyway.

Thanks for your time and remember to embrace the adventure.

If you feel like it, consider looking up my Cyberpunk novel. Detective Dak is asked to hunt down all the clones in New Cluster but is in love with one of them.

Dusk to Dusk

Here’s a piece of flash fiction I entered into a contest. Warning it is a little Woo, but is something which I experienced around August 5 2016.

Placing down his pack with a sigh, Danial looked at his deflated tent with little enthusiasm. His hurried flight from his former home left him missing many of the supplies which would have helped him survive in the autumn forest. Tent poles proved to be the foremost on this list.

Opening a can of ale, Danial gazed to the west. The sun had already dropped behind the swaying juniper and darkness ebbed over the forest surrounding Walnut Canyon.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to stop reliving his day.

Then he moved back with an unexpected jerk.

Ahead of him a grey haze formed. Starting small, it stretched into an undulating circle wider than he stood tall. This remained strange enough, but a feeling of dread built within him unbidden. Fear crept into Danial with icy hooks, like a physical wave, it hit. It left him almost unable to move but he did force his hand toward the slip knife which hung from his belt.

He felt his eyes grow wide when a moving, handless, arm began to form and attach itself to a torso. It appeared humanoid if you didn’t count it missing a head and most of a body.

It thrashed its one arm like a punker in a mosh pit. Whatever it could be, it appeared aggressive and continued to solidify. A cold terror owned him, and Danial prepared himself.

And then it left.

Like a flipped coin, the image loomed before him, and a second later it vanished. His building dread also melted into an unexpected wave of acceptance.

Looking west there remained no sign or hint the event had occurred.

Running his fingers through his hair, he thought about all his stress and wondered if it could have brought on his experience. Then his mind went in a different direction.

Where he prepared to camp lay only a couple of miles from the Walnut Canyon cliff dwellings, and it stayed illegal to be where he was year-round. No evidence of camping occurred anywhere near his tent.

Camping here remained rare, yet here he stood, and despite his horrid day at least something had accepted him.

If you’d like to explore one of my novels, you can do so here.

The Mime Versus Alien Chronicles

Yes, dear friends, this may not be in the same vein of some of my survivalist, Wildernesspunking. Nor is it psychological rant delving into political or environmental insanity. No this is just for fun and smiles.

Many experts on aging and mental health say as one grows older they should try new projects/hobbies. A few years ago I started gardening in earnest. We’ve been doing these vids for almost a decade now, but when changes in my life started me down the WildernessPunk road, the Video projects were sidelined. We lost a couple of team members and all moved further away from each other, but most of us are still in AZ, so Tony Ballz and I picked up the Mantel. After editing our last video, Tiny Hands, which took place with the majority of the original team, we got most of the original team back together, and despite geographic challenges, we have jump-started the Daily Discord/Search Truth Quest project.

With two of our four person team both living in Tucson, Ballz and I took a greater role with the tech and production side of the fence. Although, in line with Covid high fashion, all four of us try to Zoom once a week. So with all this being said, please give yourself a break and take a few minutes to enjoy our newest creation.

(There is even a science fiction fight scene at the end!)

You can Grab More of our Videos Here

Also Like, Share, and please please Subscribe, we only need 928 more followers to be a real boy.

I would happily trade some PR through my Sharestorm Promotion company if you’re interested.

WildernessPunk: June

June 3^rd, My Son’s Birthday

Those eight or so of you who have followed WildernessPunk since it’s inception almost three years ago will remember it started as more of a journal of my adventures mixing wilderness and technology. This involved making enough capital with the latter to live within the former. Although my intentions were close to noble, I hadn’t exactly volunteered for this assignment. It had been forced upon me when evil actions caused me to lose my job, my residence, and my ability to see my young sons.

After recently tackling the truth behind environmentalism, which proved to be an unpleasant subject, I thought I’d return to a more relaxed exploration of nature, because hell, it’s June. Yet, there are other reasons I’ve fallen into this introspection.

zzz

The first several episodes of WildernessPunk were all written within the wilds of Walnut Canyon, which is located ten miles east of Flagstaff. While writing these words, I find myself, almost three years later, back within the embracing lands of Walnut Canyon once more. Also, with a bit of a strange, but not unexpected twist, I am spending the night due to further inappropriate acts by the previously mentioned evil. But it’s a beautiful day and a large cloud just plunged me into shade, so like a good WildernessPunker, I’m going to turn my turds into ale.

It does feel odd to be back where this all started. How have I changed? How has this country changed? Three years ago, I would have had a hard time imagining my life would be so much better. Yet, I also would never had imagined the disaster our government has become. On the upside, Trump has proved every nihilistic punk rock song correct.

And damn, I hate to say it, but it is a lot easier to camp with a car than a mountain bike.

Looking out over this rich forest, it seems hard to believe we have humans actively fighting for the destruction of our globe. But we have to remember there have always been humans willing to put greed before all else. They just have greater abilities to annihilate now.

10,000 years ago, Blak might have been able to convince a few members of his tribe to go attack another village while they’re sleeping, but he could do little damage to the environment itself. A 1,000 years ago, a king might be able to slaughter thousands and destroy crops, but besides overgrazing, he could do little to hurt the planet before time ended him.

During our current times, there has been an increase in the ease and damage a person can inflict on our world. A man can sit in an air conditioned office and order a 100,000 acres destroyed with the click of a mouse. Whoa, hey Boneman, I thought this was supposed to be the light hearted June romp?

June 3rd

zzzz Right right, happy happy, summer summer, June June. I feel I’ve reached a moment of reflection. Here I am halfway between when my avalanche of crap started and the beginning of WildernessPunk three years ago. Strange to think where I was three summers ago. I had only a few backpacks worth of stuff, was sober and on probation. Ha, and now I’m the one who’s sent cops over to the nasty one’s house twice today.

Yet here I sit, in Dark Skies (My favorite bar this side of the Rockies). I was supposed to have had my children yesterday and should already be relaxing by the pool in Tucson. Instead I’m supposed to suffer these mild 70 degree days, camp out, and see my old buddies. Are there sixteen new beers of tap? I guess she showed me.

June 4th

A day, six cops, and one Judge injunction later and I’m still here in Flagstaff. Is this the end game of my three year struggle? Will the evil one flip the whole situation with my boys by denying me the time I’m due with them this summer? A cliffhanger feeling mixes with supreme annoyances. Will unforgiving narcissism win out over justice, goodness, and hell unexpected bells, I even have the forces of law on my side.

I’ve hatched plans and organized a few plots. Self-centered villains with no regard for anyone but themselves, might have their strengths, but we’ll see where the last Ace falls.

June 5^th

Flagstaff Police Department and I found no leads and after a three days search. On the third day of trying, grandma let the boys in blues into her home. But the inner door to the attic was locked. Ms. Gaslight hadn’t answered the door when the cops knocked on it for five minutes. Once the Officer left, I found the fortitude to talk to my former mother-in-law for an hour (Yuck) and the evil one appeared behind us in a dark hallway. It felt like something out of a horror movie to just have someone show up within a police searched house. I called the cops and got my kids. We’re currently safe in Tucson and I’m going to court next Tuesday.

Thanks for letting me indulge in my own voice for a while, because in the end, isn’t our own voice all we really have? I feel this recent development brings the beginning of WildernessPunk full circle and solves what lay in the center of my life being torpedoed three years ago. A new chapter, or in this case, a new book, is about to begin. The first page beckons…

Life always remains a battle, we fight against the ills, so we have a chance to enjoy our rewards. More often than not, life’s bounty is best enjoyed with others. Family, friends, animals, and nature. As many before me, I have persevered, obtained my goals, and learned more than a little along the way.

May the joy find you and let your battles be true

zzzzzz

You can check out some of my fiction here, where Detective Dak is placed in charge of the anti-clone task force. His main problem… He’s dating one.

Noble Savage? WildernessPunk

As I sit in my self-made campsite near the top of Arizona’s second highest peak, Mount Graham, I see two choices spreading out before me. To my left the mountain stretches through the tall ponderosa lining its steep cliffs. A difficult journey into its mysterious shadowy depths awaits. To the right I can just make out the road which drops 6000 feet and would return me to the desert and the small town of Swift Trail Junction. Left or right, wilderness or civilization.

mount Grammy

What is more noble, the freedom of the wilds or the charity of civilization?

I already posted one WildernessPunk piece where I thank Trump for the one good thing he’s done for us, which is giving us a clear picture of the true percentage of people who can’t evolve past the asshole/idiot stage. (See One in Three, WildernessPunk for more details) I intend to take things further and really get down to the meat of human development and explore how easy/difficult it will be for humanity to save our planet.

earth snake

I used to firmly believe people could, if presented with the correct information, be able to change their minds. I often debated the preachers shouting out bible quotes on my college mall. I would argue with others until late in the night. I studied history and anthropology and thought, despite the horrors our world has seen, people were moving toward a better future. Like many liberal leaning folks, I’ve been heartened by the lessening of racial injustice and the greater acceptance of the GBLTQ individuals.

Yes, things appeared to be improving, but now I also see the rise of neo fascists not just in the USA, but in many countries around the globe. I also realize one would have to be a fool to think the increasing populations of people expecting more with less to go around, mixing with a deteriorating environment, won’t be creating global situations ripe for this to grow worse.

So what’s going on?

How can things be improving overall for most of the world while simultaneously so many are embracing emotion based lies over facts and true problem solving? I have a theory and most people aren’t going to like it.

Saquaro Clouds

There may be a deep and ingrained reason people are dividing and less able to come to an agreement than ever before and I’ll get to outlining this, but first I want to toss something else out there.

The USA. like most countries. is dividing into two camps. Really three with the third camp being both ends of a bell curve, either folks who have risen above such well-established rhetoric or are too dull witted or too involved with their personal crisis to care. But let’s move back to the publicized two. Most tend to call them, Right/Left, Liberal/Conservative, Red/Blue. I’m going to make it even simpler and label them Group A which = Red, Conservatives, Right etc… And group B which = Blue, Liberal, Left etc…

Let’s discuss the basic values of these groups.

Group A

Belief in the truth of preindustrial dogmas
Government should be used to control others
The government should be used to control and use other countries and peoples
Their religion of choice should be the baseline used to determine how the government controls its civilians
When it comes to the military, the bigger the better
Some groups, religions, and races are not to be trusted and are mostly comprised of bad people.
The past was better
Some people and groups are out to get you, your family, and anything you have
Emotions and beliefs are more important than facts
Everyone has an equal chance in life and hard work is all it takes to reach your goals.
Wealth and power is the yardstick in which a person’s success is measured

Sup

Group B

Overall, our culture is improving
The purpose of the government is to help people
Discrimination is wrong
All people are created equal
Happiness is the yardstick by which a person success is measured
Facts should drive decision making
One’s opinions should remain flexible and if presented with updated information be able to change
The government can be used to help increase economic equality
We can make the future better
Although we are all created equal, random ills/benefits and situations brought about by our culture give everyone a different circumstance which they must adjust to when seeking success

And what about Group C? I’m not going to go too far into this group here, but let’s just assume the more apathetic due to being dull witted tend to fall in line with Group A, while those who attempt to evolve to a higher rational state still tend to have a soft spot for group B.

zzzzzz

I said I had a theory as to why these two groups can’t agree well and I’m not the only one. Although I do intend to take it a step further.

There has been more research going on in recent years as to why some people support Group A or Group B and the data being gathered increasingly points to this being caused by a physical aspect of brain development. Much as how we’re born either male or female, it appears we may also be born into Group A or B. A person’s choice on which group or lifestyle they chose may be determined before birth.

Not to get all Dungeons and Dragons or call up the paradigms created by English writer Michael Moorcock, these groups have also been associated with Law and Chaos. Group A is Lawful and seeks to keep things the same. The world is working for me, why change it? These are my beliefs why change them? My family went to church when I was growing up, so will my children.

Group B is Chaotic. If there is a way to make things better, we should figure it out, so we can improve. If I am presented with new facts which prove an assumption I had is wrong, then I should change my mind.

Alright gentle readers. I hope I whetted your appetite for more, but I also try to keep these articles under three pages, so I’m going to have to return with some factual data and research, which has been done to support the ideas I’m laying down for you here. I’ll also reveal my more advanced theory on the subject. Wow, what a cliffhanger. I hope you can handle it.

Dionysus Neutral Space

You can grab some of my fiction here, and I can promise you these people are on the Hero’s path.

Two Years, WildernessPunk

As I have stated on more than one occasion, WildernessPunk has never been meant to be just an upscale journal chronicling my misadventures. However, WildernessPunk did begin after I was tossed into a dark well of unintended Chaos. This Chaos became full of moments both good and ill, uplifting and difficult. This week held the main three dates which mark the two-year anniversary or perhaps in my case, adversity, of when these changes began.

Camp 1 wetter

To drive these dates home even further, I also had my last (scheduled) court date two years to the day I ran from the cops and spent a night half frozen in the forest. Yesterday was the two-year anniversary of me spending a night in jail, while today, two years ago, was the morning, for better with some worse, I started my new life. Now, here I sit in a Flagstaff hotel, with my court dates over, getting ready to pick up my children and take them to Tucson with me once my oldest boy is done with school.

Yes, things have changed quite a bit in two years.

Boney car

I spend enriching days with my children, see little of the demon queen of gaslighting(DQG), and have the freedom to enjoy great times with my friends and family. I am also truly blessed with the best girlfriend I’ve ever had.

Alright, I’m starting to sound like Agent Smith in Matrix two. “Me, me, me.” Yet I am going somewhere with this or perhaps two-wheres. First one is simple. For those of you following either my life or WildernessPunk, this is a milestone and in many respects reaching an endgame. The BS which got me living in the woods and starting this blog has mostly come to a close, despite the efforts of DQG to make it malinger. Sure, I’ll continue to have trials and tribs, like all humans, but this chapter is closed, moving on…

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The second and certainly more universal point has to do with Chaos and the Warrior’s Path. It is easy for all of us to get stuck in our mundane. Life can be trying, but the known, despite its drawbacks, becomes more comfortable than the unknown and we allow ourselves to stay within situations, be they relationships, jobs, or friendships, which can be unhealthy and uninspiring. We feel exhausted and just sigh, while our life dribbles by.

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The alternative to this is entering the stream of chaos. Sometimes we do it on purpose and other times it is forced on us. Chaos is the dark and scary unknown. People will tell you not try it, it might be too dangerous, but this is also how heroes are born and how we grow as individuals.

Creepy Gate

We’re always growing and learning, but growth accelerates when we have our world yanked out from under us and we enter the Warrior’s Path. We could experience more in a month than we did over the last three years.

Warriors change.

Surviving the Chaos forces us to self-actualize. We can step back and analyze our life and experiences. With luck and knowledge, we make new and stronger choices. Below are a few examples of the benefits of striking out into uncertainty and returning reborn.

Increased Wisdom and a greater understanding of how the world works

More positive self-regard

Realizing what you will no longer put up with

The pleasure of only allowing decent people to be part of your life

Understanding what is really important to your life

Motivating to follow your true goals

Triumphing over evil

There are of course many more, but this is a good start. I’ll leave you with this. Hardships may mostly seem to well… suck, at least at the time, but hardships often become an opportunity, Not just for a better life, but also a better you. Stagnation can’t compete with adventures. Adventures may be hard and could find you shivering in the rain with blisters on your feet, but one month of adventures might be worth ten years of mundania and you’ll always have a few interesting stories to tell.

warrior woman

You can grab some of my fiction here, and I can promise you these people are on the Hero’s path.

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Can you go Back? WildernessPunk

They say, “You can’t go back.” Which is of course false, because you can go back, it just might not feel the same way. Yet, what makes it different? I often look back at even recent times in my life and marvel over how much has changed in just a couple of years, but things can become dissimilar for us in just a few months as well.

Preroof and tarp

Sometimes situations change for the worse, but as darker fluctuations occur, at times they can also force us out of stagnation. Although many of us like to feel cozy and warm in a predicable life, one also runs the risk of trading the unknown for the known and lack of variety and adventure can often be the price you pay.

Boney Utah

As the sun begins to set on this mystic Baccanaught, I look back at where I was when I started WildernessPunk 18 months ago. I lived much of my time in camp 1 between Flagstaff and Walnut Canyon. I spent the days and nights alone with only the minimal equipment I could transport to the forest by bike. No fires, simple foods, mostly reading and writing until the battery on my loaned laptop died.

Now, not too long after, I’m living in a home with heat and water, dating a lovely goddess of a woman, seeing friends every week, and most importantly getting to have my boys stay with me.

boys

Yes, much can change quickly, but this only made it more exciting when I had a chance to return to Camp 1 recently. It felt fitting I hiked up into the forest alone. Within are pictures of Camp 1 taken in 2018, 15 months after the last night I slept there.

Trail

In theory, I had returned to clean up and perhaps salvage anything worth grabbing, but as I followed the old trail, which hid my homeless refuge, other more complex thoughts moved through my mind.

in the distance 2018

I felt grateful. Where so much had turned against me, now so many things have fallen into place. Yet as the readers of WildernessPunk might appreciate, with this turning of the tide, something was also lost.

Camp 1 view

One feels a pride persevering through obstacles and living low to the ground with limited resources. Nature is the great equalizer. Rich or poor, members of every race and belief are all treated the same. Only your ability to prepare and work to improve your state changes things in the real world.

Was this the Real World or is my normal house more real? Hard to say. I felt alive in a different fashion then. Am I more of a winner now or less? I’d get different answers from each person I could ask. Yet, the bottom line for many of us becomes our children, family, lover, and friends. Are you going to live for yourself and ideals, or jump into the mainstream so your can uphold different goals and ideals?

Perhaps one can do both. Wish me luck.

AZSunset

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this, Hell, my hero is a cop, go figure.