Environmentalism – Page 5

Ghost Town’s Ghost, WildernessPunk

This is my new thing, at least for the next month or so, I’m heading out into Arizona’s desert badlands on the week’s most off-days, Monday and Tuesday. Some people think you should only explore the desert in the winter. Forget such nonsense. One should experience an area’s true nature. You don’t become one with the saguaros hiking through them in January. This would be like trying to discover Mardi Gras in New Orleans in September. Also, with Phoenix now being the fifth largest city in the USA, if one wants a little Desert Solitaire, you need to avoid the spilling of the hundred thousands into the wilds by dodging the weekends. I want to be the only non-local around, damn it. Non-local = El Loco.

Saquaro Clouds

Before I go any further, I’d like to elaborate on something. I’ve had a few nick names throughout my life, but I’m sure Alex Bone isn’t one of them… When I was in middle school, my large feet and tall frame earned me the tag of Bigfoot. Later in high school, oh what a lovely time, I was called The Ghost due to my pale complexion. Is this reverse racism, being too white for whiteys? So since I endured the label of The Ghost for several years, I think I have the right to keep the term as I explore some of Arizona’s backroad quasi-ghost towns. (Side note: I did enjoy a heathy amount of retribution against the culprits who labeled me in my 90% jock high school, but as they say, this is quite a different story.)

Scene

After spending the afternoon looking for a former mining town, small, and old enough to draw me in, but also modern enough for me to have a roof and a bite for a least a night, I settle on Superior Arizona. Sean Penn stared in Uturn which was set here a few decades ago. Hollywood liked the looks of the place and felt it represented Arizona strangeness at its finest, but does the reality hold up to the fantasy? Still, it could be worse, I could end up at that Wrong Turn place with all the cannibals with bows. Such events can be very exciting as well, unless you get eaten and then it just bites.

Waiting until nightfall, The Ghost heads into the what remains of Superior’s downtown. I travel under a bridge complete with a Troll’s lair and then move over the undulating streets which crumble under my shoes. The tangle of roads leaves me feeling disoriented until a glowing neon sign peeks between the burned-out shells of houses. It reminds me food and drink are possible if only one can find their way past these half-abandoned houses. A break in the fence later and I’m moving over brick streets and up old staircases lining the sides of empty buildings.

Superior Path

I’m woken up the next morning with a manic knock on my door. A young woman saw my children’s clothes in my car and came to the natural conclusion I had them locked in my trunk. I quickly realized this was schizophrenic logic and this poor gal had a serious mental illness. She wanted for a light for her smoke and took my lighter while asking me to open the trunk to prove there were no children locked inside. I figured this act would be better than a crazed call to the sheriff and obligated her. She walked away satisfied and yep, I got my lighter back before I headed off to the one open restaurant on a row with nine closed ones.

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Last Scene Update:

While I was at lunch, the aforementioned female broke into people’s rooms and was chased off by a very angry woman. Somehow, I’m the most paranoid guest who actually keeps the door locked?

Oh, another update. Last night’s quest for grub and dud, had also failed due to the twisted alleys and a shut down time of 7pm (It’s a small town). The long, also half lost, journey back to the hotel left me needing to complete my trek to the town’s one functioning tavern. Porter’s Saloon had been around a while. I can feel the whispers of the long dead miners mixing with real cowboys as they paid out their earnings on a small slice of civilization and four surrounding walls filled with a different kind of spirits.

Bone at Porters

Another type of ghost haunts the place now. The living ghosts clinging to a dying town. Little in the way of jobs or money comes in, but low, to no, rent as fourth generations cling to former miner’s homes balances this enough for many to stay. They bake through the low desert heat avoiding the chain stores, strip malls, and shopping in return for this blessing, they keep their original aspect. Nothing here is duplicated, the town is as individual as the people who made it.

Are people like towns/cities?

Some are just copies of other things we see, a mass following of ideas, fast food chains, exercise studios, and cross-country commodities. From Miami to Seattle kids can dress the same and follow the same trends. While in some towns there’s an indifference to commonality. People follow a similar path. Many let themselves be taken in by mass movements which spread over countries and continents. Whether one is Christian, Liberal, or into War-Porn, opps I mean Sports, you’re all waiting in the back of a huge line with millions if not billions of smucks.

FYI the bigger the line the more smucks.

Some people, like Superior, use whatever resources they have to shape themselves in the best manner they can manage. They borrow and trade with the outside world, but after they mold it to their needs, it is unique and unrecognizable.

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Many mass thought patterns and movements have merit and one need not waste their whole life reinventing the wheel. However important issues, concepts, and movements should not be taken for granted. It is when we insist the way a huge group of people think is right, when we are most likely to be wrong. Things like avoiding racism, promoting environmentalism, and a positive based life are examples of philosophies I hope the whole species will evolve into embracing.

Bridge

So what is the answer? How can one know the right path to tread and which is a huge waste of time or worse… evil?

Here is a handy backward paradigm checklist. If you follow a system or leader who does these things duck, cover, and then run away.

Bridge View

Backward Paradigm Warning Signs:

Paradigm is based on Fear
Is inflexible in regards to how it has all the answers
Hate and blaming others rules the words of the leaders
Seeks to eliminate outsiders
Ignores facts
Asks one to take things on faith instead of proof

How can we balance the individualism of avoiding interference with the bombardment of the modern world while it’s now more important than ever to be involved with saving our planet and way of life?

Trump's favorite Nature View

I really think we will either have to evolve our consciousness or die. How many planets have failed when they reached this stage and how many have moved ahead? I would love to know the odds before I start placing my bets. Just kidding, I’ll bet on us every time. I’m a glass half full kind of a…

Oh crap, what am I?

Boneand Yig

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

Superior Sunset

Goals, WildernessPunk

Prelude:

I sit at the eastern edge of the Cochise Stronghold. I’ve camped in the Stronghold many times, but this is the first time I’ve camped on the east side of the massive sky island. It’s also my first solo trip. Blue birds of happiness steal my food, I’m hoping they trade some of their happiness for it. It’s been a long while since I went solo into the wilds and as usual the quiet sets my mind into action and as I look up from my Daily Action Dash of goals, the choice for this installment of WildernessPunk becomes clear.

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Goals:

We all have goals or at least I hope we do. A life without goals seems like it wouldn’t be worth the effort for me. Why bother getting out of bed in the morning if you didn’t have a reason to or in my case about eighty reasons. Yet, like most of life, what I consider a goal might not be the same as my son, or neighbor, or enemy, or you. So let’s try to define them first.

My definition would be: Goals are a measurable task or project which can be achieved and upon completion will make one’s life or the world better.

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This being said, I would also go forth and add we could have very different types of goals we’re out pursuing during the same day. A parent could work to earn extra money for their family, exercise, help their child learn math, and finish a sculpture all within the same day. These goals are all quite different, but each benefits the parent and most likely others.

This brings up another type of distinction, the length or perhaps the repetition of our diverse goals. Deciding to exercise for thirty minutes a day is not the same as seeking a publisher for my new novel.

Length of Goals:

Daily: Exercise, Educating Children, Cleaning, Reading
Weekly: Creation, Social Time, Maintenance Tasks
Long Term: Finish Writing a Novel, Learn French, Prepare for a Big Vacation, Add a Deck to Your Home

Sometimes one might have goals which could be done daily, but might be better to record on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Creative goals fit into this. “I want to have three new paintings before the month is over.” It’s a defined and measurable goal, but I might work eight hours one day and then skip doing anything for the next three.

Some might wonder why having a goal be measurable is so important. Being able to measure a goal creates accountability. It also allows you to know how well you are proceeding toward your end game and also when you are complete. Goals like…. I’m going to be less depressed, be a better parent, or find love are difficult if not impossible to measure. Why have a goal which is so nebulous you can’t even determine when it is complete?

On a personal level, I feel it’s a strong plan to have weekly goals while keeping track of your long-term goals. In life it is your long-term goals which set you apart from the herd and allow you to accomplish your bigger dreams, while your weekly goals give you the ability to do so.

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I collect data on my weekly goals twice a week roughly covering the weekdays along with the weekend. Why collect data? As I hope to illustrate, with the use of well organized data collection, I am able to easily determine how well I’m doing in regards to living the type of life I wish to live as well as calculating how well I’m accomplishing my personal goals.

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Alex Bone’s Weekly Goals:

X = Exercise: The equivalent of 1400 sit-ups a week.
W = Writing: 20 pages a week.
R = Reading: 200 Pages a week.
CWN = Commune with Nature: Be outside a minimum of 7 hours a week.
WL = Write Letters: Stay in contact with family, friends, and allies 28 times a week.
A = Alternative: Accomplish daily tasks or make steps toward long terms goals at least 7 times a week.
B = Bonus: Make extra profit and reward myself for each time I accomplish all eight goals daily.
Ki = Ki: Attend to spiritual goals and/or make time for my mental health

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I’m certainly not suggesting people should imitate me or my goals are better than those held by other people. I just do what works for me and since I’m coming up on my 20 year anniversary of measuring my goals, I guess I’m either pretty good at it or have a higher level of OCD than most people you’ve met. (I suppose both of those statements can also be true.)

Just because I measure these, doesn’t mean I attain them each week or limit myself in the level I might accomplish them. I often write less than 10 pages a week, (Don’t tell anyone) Reading also fails below my standard more often than not. However, things like Alternative can reach as high as 100 for even a bi-weekly measure.

So… what is the point of all this? Again no one is required to follow my path. It probably wouldn’t work for most people. However, it might be useful to think about your own goals in long term and short term formats. Perhaps writing them out and setting benchmarks would also be useful.

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When I see I had a bad week I can try to figure out why and adjust my life accordingly. Same is true with a great week. I can look back and see what worked so well for me.

Also, if a particular goal is doing poorly, say I only read 30 pages during the weekends, I can try to figure out why this occurred and change my schedule or adjust my modalities.

Jumping on the accomplishment bus never hurt anyone. Life it to be enjoyed, but part of our happiness comes from our feelings of accomplishment. Also, when we reach many of our goals, new doors might open for us or we may rise our standards of living in other manners. With a bit of forethought and the proper effort, who knows what you might be able to do?

Bone hat

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.

WildernessPunk: Happiness or Rocking from the Bottom, Rolling to the Top

What do you need to be Happy, is it out of your reach, or did you read the WP Pleasure article and ensure you have fun every day?

But what defines Happiness?

I’m sure there are as many answers as there are different people. However, folks with an anthropological bent, such as myself, seek to find common threads, which if tugged, help us reach to the truth of the human condition.

Things turn us on and other things turn us off, but again are there themes or archetypes which connect us as a species? Still, what it is which makes most of us happy? Like Mr. Terrence said in The Shining, “You pour them, and I’ll knock them back, Lloyd”

Unhappiness

Perhaps the key to finding happiness is also defining what creates unhappiness. Again, what makes me unhappy might not affect another person as much or maybe even be a good thing. My reaction to finding a snake in the wild would be a lot different than a person with a serpent phobia. I have long said, when seeking a mate, the absence of qualities you find annoying in the other person, is nearly as important as having similar tastes.

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Possessions

Some would say prosperity is the key to happiness and the person with the most toys wins. Research does not back this up. More money leads to more spending and only moving out of poverty and into the lowest economic class tends to make people feel better. So nope, despite what this country encourages, money won’t buy contentment, although it can sure help to make your weekend BBQ a whole lot better.

jet skis

Variety

For many of us, repetition is a bad thing and maybe the type of occurrence which could, over time, drive you mad. Same street, same, job, same task, same building, same clock I’m staring at while hoping part of my life passes by faster. Yet, we should also consider some people find peace within the known. Familiar walls deliver comfort for most of us. We like being warm and safe, I can tell, for most of the world sacrifices vast possibilities for such things.

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Like most things in life, Law and Chaos rests on a bell curve. Too much of the same every day and we’ll feel useless, like something which is little more than an organic machine fulfilling a role. Another could step in a do the same thing. Nothing is special and new. Where Chaos can be exciting and hip, full of promise, mystery, and adventure, it can also ruin lives and throw things into a spiral. Too much variety can water things down to the point where nothing gets focused on or completed.

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Yet where does happiness fit on this curve? Although predictably reduces stress, it can also reduce joy. Think of the best times in your life. Did they happen on some weird Thursday at work or where they during your trip overseas or when you got stuck in the mud during a wild camping trip? Perhaps it was the first time you saw a new mate and they threw your life a massive curve ball and nothing remained the same. I’m going to just come out and say it, overall Chaos leads to those spikes of happiness, but a certain amount of Law allows us to stay alive long enough to get to enjoy them.

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Friends

What’s the good of doing most of the positive things in life, if you can’t share them with someone? Sometimes you aren’t near family, but even if you’re currently single or with someone, having good friends can be what it’s all about. Yes, when you have a lover you can be more intimate with them, perhaps tell them things your friends might never know, but let’s face it, in this life, for most of us, our friends outlast our relationships. I’ve been married and divorced twice, but still have great friends I’ve know long before I met my first X Mrs. Bone.

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Great friends are like good time multipliers. You take something great and for each awesome buddy who shows up the good times are increased by 21%. Yep, 21%, everyone knows that. Friends can also keep the glooms away or get you back on the right track in life. Oh and FYI, in my opinion the best things to do with friends is roll with them out of town, camping, road trips, vacations… one of the best things life can offer.

Family

Yeah sure, we often belly ache about them, but no one else can share the entire span of your life as well with you. There’s something special about being able to go back to early childhood with someone, because face it, those could end up being our happiest years.

Then, when you’re a parent, whole new vistas of love and happiness open for you. Just seeing the joy in your children’s faces… excuse me, I gotta go get a tissue.

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Mates

Is there anything better than the happy glowing feeling you get when you’re with the right person? It can burn so intense you can barely breath and just pace around your abode chanting their name—mixed with praises. There’s also the calm reassurance a person has your back and likes you enough to get naked and wet with you. Yep, makes me happy.

Soft Cheese

Jennocide wanted me to remind everyone about soft cheese. Sometimes just treating yourself and maybe a few other people, well, it’s just good. I think the message here, is allow yourself a little Dionysus and share it with others who you care about.

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I could go on, but people might get annoyed because I’m being so damn cheery and I might have to change this from WildernessPunk to the UrdanHappyHunk. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to my grumpy rants next time. I also have a new project I might be busting out with soon, just in time to share a sacrilegious X-mess with my nine fans.

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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.

Bone's Cave Beer

WildernessPunk Justice

Justice, slow in coming, many say it’s blind. Some believe in a cosmic balance, fate, karma, we reap as we sow…

I call BS on the above. Like most things we have the power to observe, Justice is random, karma only occurs through Chaos happening to get it right sometimes. Of course, sometimes actions can channel fate. A man raping people’s daughters is more likely to be killed than the married guy selling you sliced cheese at Albertsons. Still there’s no guarantee, maybe cheese slicer cut his finger and walked by the crime scene and his blood splashed near the rolled up carpet with a lump in it. Justice is served.

Okay Boneman, tangent much?

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Wait, I have a point. Now I said Justice is random. This isn’t completely true. Even before the production of alcohol and religion created the need for cities and towns, tribes had rules, ethics, and morality. They might be looser to interpretation, but sometimes flexibility is a good thing. It isn’t too different today. Justice is usually more likely to be determined by the judge who’s picked, the jury present, and the price of the lawyer, more so than the man or woman who has their fate in their hands.

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Okay are you ready? Are you really ready? Sit back, take a deep breath, hold it. Lean forward and breath it out your nose.

I know you were raised to believe Laws exist to help us and are good morale binders. To bad they aren’t real. Let’s just ponder this shall we. I’ll pick on the USA, cuz, um, I live here. And here goes…

A few hundred years ago, not a single written law existed.

Someone didn’t trust his fellows, so he started to imagine all the ways he could control and punish them for doing anything he decided was wrong.

Religion helped, but has never been enough to really keep people in line, so officers were hired to do so. The people making the laws hired the officers and the officers enforced the rules the leaders designed and put onto paper.

Now people who were caught breaking the laws, some other guy thought up and imposed on everyone, could have their freedom, currency, and even life taken away.

Many laws remain arbitrary and change constantly, proving they had no real moral necessity, longevity, or real justification. Examples include, laws regarding slavery, voting rights, alcohol laws, drug laws, dueling, rules against Tribal Americans…

A new wave of people coming to power also change laws, which again proves their arbitrary nature.

Many laws change from state to state. Not only does the law exist or not, but even similar laws have different punishments. So a person’s legal fate is determined by imaginary distinctions in land masses, which were made up, and no one can see.

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I could go on, but I think you see the point. Laws are things thought up by mostly people who are now dead. Their legitimacy is drawn into question by their inability to stay constant over time or even over different parts of the same country. From officers to judge—personal choice, random chance, and ulterior motives alter outcomes, so that even within the same law, no two people are ever treated equally.

So yeah, um… you wrote down the law. Yep, I see it printed there. It didn’t exist for 99.99999999999999999999% of human’s time here on earth and might be dismissed as nonsense or outdated in twenty years, but… “Shut up, damn it, spend the night in jail and give me a bunch of your money.”

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Oh yeah and if you are rich enough, you don’t really have to worry about it.

Mostly these fines are made to help tax you for being naughty without the Ultra 1% having to say they created more taxes.

So what about Justice?

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It’s Law versus Chaos and Chaos always wins. Whether it is the entropy cracking your new driveway or you drawing the judge who hates you because you’re a *****, chaos rules everything. Law can fight back and control a little corner for a decade or two, but in the end Chaos tears it all away. Just ask the Romans.

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So light a candle and hope a dead man’s imagined rules will protect you through the dark night, but as with most made up ideals, Laws can hurt as often as they help, right Religion? If you don’t believe me, ask the guy getting beheaded for being gay, his overseers believe they are behaving within the bounds of decency.

Justice is served.

The only true law is the law of nature, which strangely most people in my country can avoid. The law of nature would say an out of shape, obese man cannot travel 10 miles when it’s 102 degrees. Oh wait, opps he can, because he can hop into his car and crack up the air conditioning.

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So screw it, we ignore the real laws and give lip service to fake crap some dead guy, I’d probably hate, made up out of nothing other than his prejudices, desire to control others, and motivations to force others to follow his believe system. “I can’t trust these low-lives to be decent on their own, so I’ll make them bend the knee to what I decided is right.”

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In closing, I consider myself a just person. I really don’t get into too much trouble and I’m wicked pissa nice to most people I meet. I avoid crossing paths with criminals and cops, because I hate gangs. Yeah, I’m avoiding the net every day I can. The net sure is real when it catches you and you have to pay all sorts of prices, but like a boat full of animals which repopulated the earth, in the end it is all mostly made up crap which fades over time, and is about as moral as some of those holy books. An eye for an eye. Oh wait, maybe I should turn the other cheek. Or if you try to talk to me about the legitimacy of these imagined rules, you just might see both of mine while I moon you from the top of the mountain.

I’ll be up their talking to my burning beer bottle while writing up some new commandments for you. Hell, I heard anyone can do it.

Alex of the Gods

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.

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WildernessPunk Road Tripping

Normal reality you are slipping, when you start Road Tripping.

Those of you who have been following WildernessPunk for a while will remember much of the original posting revolved around some serious Road Tripping across the grand old US of A. Whether you’re for or against this country, you have to love the environments contained within. We have more open land in some of our states than whole countries enjoy.

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Yet, besides a few exceptions, I’ve been much more grounded this year. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but travel does something for your soul. I think we should all remember it doesn’t have to be something super special or a big deal to help us bust out of our routine with knew sights and experiences.

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Case in point, I’m in Sierra Vista and having a great time just walking around and exploring the place and yep, it really isn’t too exciting here…so far.

Why is this? Why does going to a different place, even one less excited then the one we just left, still do it for us? It is just not knowing what might be around the next bend, even though it’s likely to be a KFC? It is the chance to see new environments or maybe spy some animals? Perhaps meeting knew people just a little different than yourself might be the thing.

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Sometimes it obvious. Staying in Mexican Hat, nestled against the cliffs lining the San Juan river, with my father last year, well, obviously that experience was powerful. Some things are just going to be great. Going to Colorado for the first time, heading to Europe, yeah, somethings will just be an awesomeness no brainer, but what about the littler trips, which still raise your spirits and bring out a feeling of adventure in our souls even as we watch those around us going through their mundania?

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Could the anonymity be part of it? “No one knows me here, how exciting. I could re-invent myself. I’m a man of mystery in this place.” This could be part of it, but if we live in a city or a town of any real size, we could roll all day and not see a single person we know, sometimes even when we want to. It could contribute, but naw.

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Maybe it’s not so much where we are, but what we’ve left behind. Maybe what we left behind is something ten times better then way we are. Nope, won’t be moving to Sierra Vista. But this isn’t the point, maybe it is more of the trials and responsibilities we have left behind which have a hard time touching us. Let’s think about some things which cannot happen when we’re on the road or in a different place. This might not apply for every single person, but I’m making sweeping statements, it’s what I do. We’re all good at something. I’m good at sweeping statements and bumping my head.

Most of us won’t be working our normal jobs.

We aren’t doing our usual chores.

Many will not even be cooking or so much as picking a towel up off the floor.

No dropping the kids off at school or various social functions.

We leave our, “I’m too busy tos” behind and we can often catch up on goals and projects we never seem to have time for, even if it’s something as simple as reading a novel.

For the most part, there are no interruptions from spending time with loved ones and friends. No… “I’ll see you after work, school, or next weekend,” nope we’re in this together. This could be the best reason for a lot of us.

So don’t make a big deal about it. No need for weeks of planning or blowing half your paycheck. Just grab someone you care about and head out and discover a new place. A little adventure never hurts the soul, so happy Road Tripping my friends. And if you see me hitchhiking along the road, please slow down and pick me up or at least toss me a beer as you drive by.

Boney

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

Beer Sunglasses

WildernessPunk Pleasure

Pleasure, we all like it, sometimes maybe too much. Pleasure gives us reasons to live, but in some cases, can also hurt or even cut our lives short, if we aren’t careful. Yet, like most things in life, there are many misunderstanding on the dichotomy between Pleasure and payback, as well as what Pleasure really is and what kind we could be striving for.

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When I say Pleasure, what comes to mind… good food, relaxing, when you’re in the middle of your favorite hobby, being with people you care about, drugs, sex? For some people finding pressure can be quite an elaborate process, whether you are spending nine hours trying to score your drugs or flying all day to visit Rome. For others it could be as simple as quick leftovers, so they can enjoy the new episode of The Walking Dead.

But what is pleasure and why do we want it? Also, why are some people searching for it more than others and in so many different ways?

First let’s discuss why we feel pleasure at all. Most aspects of any animal’s existence revolve around methods of keeping them alive and continuing the species. Not to quote Bear Grylls on purpose, but the first things we need to survive are shelter and food. We might not feel like we’re having pleasure sitting under a lean-to in the rain, but we’re enjoying it a lot more than having the rain blast us. Food which tastes good is easier to eat and we’re more likely to do so. Both of these motivations for a more pleasant experience in life are likely to keep us above ground.

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Still, after a while, we rush through meals and for most of the folks reading this, you’re used to having a roof over your head to the point you don’t notice it much. It has become a given. If someone was going to ask you what you intended to do for fun this weekend, I doubt you would say, “I’m going to enjoy not being exposed to the elements and make sure I don’t become malnourished.”

As with much of life, Humanity has evolved beyond these baser animal needs, or at least us lucky privileged few have. This evolution has also affected what we desire. In the land of plenty, there are more and more options. We will do many things this weekend and most likely about 90% of your activities, if not more, will be things it would have been impossible to do a hundred years ago. We might see a movie, try some new ethnic foods, go wind surfing, fly over the Grand Canyon, or drive out to explore some place a hundred miles away.

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Let’s look at the difference between our base, perhaps Pleasure driven, survival needs and what we’ve become. Some things always make me want to laugh. We have a thousand layers of perfected manners and political correctness, but no matter how evolved we might like to imagine ourselves, sex drives us crazy. We want sex, need sex, will do anything for it… or will we? “No, I’ve risen above such base needs, I respect the opposite gender and, oh fuck it, just nail me!”

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I know, I’m crass, but am I wrong and what might evolving past such needs mean? Oh, now I can just find my splinter group of weirdness online or use phone aps for dating. I’m so advanced. Hell, back in the old days you had to go out and meet people to have sex. What fools.

We could talk about sex all night, or well I could, but let’s move on, my step mom might be reading this.

Food and shelter has lost all semblance of anything approaching reality. Some of the poorest people in this country, might have air conditioning or central heating which puts them centuries ahead of most of the wealthiest individuals who have lived for the last 6000 years. I could be close to dead dog broke, but still grab some shrimp tonight if I wanted. Could 99.9999% of humanity have done that since, err, the dawn off…humanity?

In our current state, Pleasure has been elevated to an unneeded extent. “Oh, I feel like ice cream and darn there are only 80 styles of choose from. Perhaps I’ll pick from thousands of streaming movies while I sit on my expanding ass.”

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We think about pleasure killing us. “Three people will die from opiates before this program is complete,” but despite how horrible some types of drug addictions are, can they even hold a flicking candle in the rain to how many people die from obesity related causes? I’ll just say it, if you’re dishing on meth users when you watch television over four hours a day and are fifty pounds overweight, you can eat a big fuck you sandwich. I’m not in favor of meth, but if you think you can stand on some high horse, you need to readjust your thinking.

It wouldn’t be too hard to argue our evolution in Pleasure is killing many of us and again I would think obesity more than kicks drug use in taking the most people down. But extreme sports, driving drunk, relationships, and letting a good night lead you into the wrong environment, can also become a way where the pursuit of happiness takes you out.

Dionysus, just be

Perhaps we should look toward what our real purpose in life might be. Are we like the drummer in Spinal Tap…? “Have a good time, all the time.” Should life be a Dionysian attempt to have fun each day? Well, um, yeah. Still many of us have children and responsibilities. But why have kids if they aren’t fun. You have fun with your kids, right? Yes.

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Pleasure doesn’t need to be something we build up to some grand vision. If taking your kids out for pizza is fun, then have at it. If you’re single and feel the need to get some snuggle, good luck to you. Maybe some other guy wants to eat some of those happy mushrooms and run around in the woods, just watch out for cliffs and cactus buddy. Perhaps all you want to do is watch a little Stand Up at home on a Saturday Night.

I’m certainly not going to dictate what’s right and wrong in our pursuit of Pleasure, but might have to quote a little Crowley, “Do as thou Wilt, as long as it hurts none.” Still we all need to keep in mind, to be careful when judging how others might be finding their own joy. Religion followers should not come down on gays because being with someone of the same sex is how they find fulfillment and perhaps gays shouldn’t come down on people who feel more complete and safe because they convinced themselves some deity watches over them. Who is anyone to judge another? When is really comes down to it, none of us know much about why we’re really here. Hell, maybe homosexually is a progressive evolutionary leap, but then again, maybe there could be a Christian God. Personally, I don’t think so, but I could be wrong, because, I’m just a silly human. What do I know?

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I talk about Yig a bit on these pages, but when it comes to pleasure, Dionysus holds the cornucopia of desire on high. So, let me end with this. The other day Dionysus appeared to me in the guise of a burning wine bottle and said, “The secret of life is to have some fun and do something you like every day.” Pretty simple, but then again, simple things give me Pleasure.

new-london

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

Skinjumpers

WildernessPunk ShitIdiot

I invented a new word. Shitidiot. Kind of has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? I swear I wasn’t inspired by Trump, okay, perhaps a little. But this word isn’t about him.

Think on it. There are two major categories of people you might not want to hang out with. Evil people and stupid people. Still each of these things on its own has some level of respectability. For instance, the wealthiest one percent. They are shit ass evil, but they aren’t idiots. The people who vote for them might be, but they are living large and are an inspiration to, so many would be evil scumbags.

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.Conversely, you have the idiot. This might be just a guy whose goals and choices are much simpler than yours. Anyone who watching more than four hours of sports a day while growing less fit themselves or the guy who thinks facts are not obstacles to slow you down while seeking the truth, falls in the idiot zone.

The evil one percenters, might by their nature, be getting more evil accomplished on a wider scale, but then again, you almost have to give them some level of respect. When they go to war with a country to steal its resources, they have no delusions about it. They have come to grips with their desires and are willing to fulfill them regardless of the consequences. There is a certain honor in just admitting, “I’m going to strive to be self-centered and take whatever I want for me and mine. Call me evil, I don’t care. I will kill, confuse, and trick my way and no rules apply, unless I get caught. Even then, nine times out of ten I’ll figure a way to forge ahead.”

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“Would you like to grab my wife’s pussy Mr. President or perhaps walk into my teenaged daughter’s room while she changes?”

Idiots can be annoying as well, but sometimes dumb hijinks are fun too. Honest laughter over nothing important can be releasing. The simple life can take a load off your shoulders. Sometimes being with certain folk is like being in the woods with friends as a kid. Hey look, a frog.

It’s when the two combine which takes reality to a new level of annoying. Yes, I know the richest 1% weld an evil which overwhelms some random dumbasss holding a tiki torch in a Klan march, but how often do most of us ever met such devils made flesh?

Instead most of us are plagued by a lower level of a malign fool and depending on how well you managed to insulate yourself for the rest of the world, it could easily be on a daily basis. If you work at the wrong place, it could be hourly or every few minutes.

I had a friend once who was an idiot. Just a dumb ass. The guy that would try to punch you and then fall in the mud. He’d come to visit and pour himself a half gallon of vodka and OJ before I would wake up and start heckling the people walking by in front of my place. Just a knucklehead. Then he tried to rape my girlfriend’s roommate. You just became a Shitidiot.

How could an evil person lower they standing to Shitidiot? Oh, it’s easy. If someone somehow believed the religion they used to control the masses was real, it would be a good start. Add to that racism and homophobia. People who believe these things are both evil and dumb, welcome to the world of being a Shitidiot, loser patrol worshipers.

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From the annoying guy at work who’s taking about how the ‘fill in the blank’ group ruined the USA, between his celebrity worshiping fixation, to both of your boss, who hates, ‘fill in the blank,’ many of us have some serious Shitidiot issues to deal with each day.

So for the more enlightened, I give you this new term to help speed through conversations so one can get to the meat of the story. “Yeah when I was at the store this real Shitidiot was in front of me and…”

You can thank me later.

Alex of the Gods

You can check out some of my fiction here if you feel inclined.

WildernessPunk Reciprocity

Reciprocity. Trade. Barter. Rare for one to hear someone talking the concept down. Quite the opposite, most people you meet give it lip service as something they seek to do at the very least. Perhaps, you might have a more lawful friend who reminds you some activities should be claimed on your taxes…blah, blah, yawn.

Reciprocity covers all human history and was our currency long before we had… ah, currency. It also, even today, bleeds into other powerful subjects, such as relationships, interaction with friends and family, and affects places like school and working environments.

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The IRS defines Bartering as “the act of trading goods or services between two or more parties without the use of money. Bartering can benefit individuals, companies and countries that see a mutual benefit in exchanging goods and services rather than cash. It also enables those who are lacking hard currency to obtain goods and services.”

And. of course. they want their cut. “The only thing that is not legal (about Bartering) is failing to claim bartering on your taxes. “

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The sad thing is most of us don’t Barter enough for even the most concerned citizen to worry about how to file on their bartering activities. However, if we look at things in a non-economic sense, much of our lives are an arrangement of social barters.

Actions such as parents giving their children taxi service, friends letting a buddy grab a beer, and helping a coworker with something, are overlooked as a series of complex barters. Things can have more subtle layers such as, the guy who cracks people up, the nice person of the opposite sex who always leaves you feeling a little better after a conversation, or the dude who brings extra food camping. Much of this unnoticed Reciprocity goes unpaid and nothing can ever be equal in this world, but even these small social dances alter our perception of ourselves and others.

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Other types of Reciprocity are more obvious. How many of us have helped a friend move, who has, in the past, helped us? If you mooch some food or beverages the last time you visited a buddy, most of you will think to bring a little extra something with you the next time you visit.

I suppose someone could build up their Reciprocity ‘karma’ intentionally, but it is usually an unacknowledged deal between people. Such things are almost never mentioned other than a few sentences of praise when someone throws down for you, or a grumble about someone nearing the end of their mooching rope.

Again, let us harken back to days of yore. Slow down and contemplate the majority of our existence as a species. The invention of money is a very recent event. Many have speculated organized religion appears in roughly the same time period as currency. The control of property along with the control of your mind.

Bike

So much of life can involve running on a treadmill, not for yourself, but for others. We can feel trapped under an imaginary ceiling. “This is how much money you are allowed this month for the amount of time you’re willing to throw away.” Barter fights against such a concept. In theory, there is no limit to what you could achieve. Kind words and noble acts are paid off with acquiring things which you might have waited months for. Often you are doing a favor for someone in the process.

We spin the win win.

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So what is my point?

Reciprocity is a system of honor hundreds of times older than our current method of measuring goods. Sometimes newer can be better, but staying under the radar and living free is better still. We have enough which rips us away from our animal nature. Reciprocity brings us back to the soul of man and womankind. The ability to judge yourself what is right, just, and measure it as you see fit and not have it decided by nameless others one has never met.

Whether it happens online or with your oldest friend, we all save when things are shared instead of discarded, when trips are made together, and when events, projects, and activities are done with others.

Isn’t this what life is about? So spend some time helping someone you care for, flip off the tax man, and make the world a little bit of a better place.

Boney Utah

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

new beds