Sandburg writing in Travels with Charley experienced people in awe of his journey and expressing desires to do the same.
Least Heat-Moon in his book, Blue Highways experienced the same when talking with a young man. This young man went on to describe his father:
" . . . You're doing what he'd give a nut to do. He goes on all the time about selling the house and quitting his job and traveling around the country. Or going back to school. . . ."
Many people, mostly men have caught my attention and asked about my rig, The Avion, and when I describe my journey their eyes kind of glaze over and a wistful expression comes upon them. Some acknowledge and say, in so many words, "Boy, I sure would like to do that."
What is this thirst for adventure and simplicity?
I believe that more and more of us are waking to the reality that our lifestyles are highly arbitrary and not in the best interest of the All. They feel the pinch and the routinization which to more and more comes to be experienced as a kind of slavery!
And, this is true even for ideal type lifestyles. Many can afford to take prolonged and frequent vacations that meet some of the needs. Some acknowledge but also accept that they are pretty addicted to their comforts, home, gardens, food, restaurants . . .
The Good Life!
Well, I certainly have led and do lead The Good Life.
Born in 1939, in the middle time of WWII and coming into awareness near the end (food stamps, sirens, rationing, oleo-margarin) the years following were ones of great prosperity and opening of opportunities for all of my family, parents, siblings, aunts, and uncles, cousins, neighbors, etc.
Soon a small TV and big transistor radios came into our homes. Each of us kids received one (now it would be cell phones or games). That gift still stands out in sharp memory.
Great education, in and out of school. All of us became productive, talented, and wealthy with experiences and opportunities.
And, now, after 70 years of such comfort and "Good Life" qualities mine continues as I am compelled and enabled . . . able to hit the road, to become the gypsy-vagabond-adventurer whom so many idolize and want to experience becoming.
Once again, maybe just my good fortune.
Or, again, the Law of Attraction. How many times I have fantasized about letting go. Practicing by going into the woods with simple food and provisions. A VW Westphalia Van to travel through Mexico in 1968 with my soon to be wife, Kathie. A small trailer, The Casita that Joanne and wandered around in. What great adventures, All.
It is doable. So has been the "Good Life" of homesteading, gardening, communal living, promoting and developing Simple Living Workshops, experimental and practice Ritual Villages.
Now, looking back on so much "goodness" I can see that it was all nickel and dime awareness that all of that was a thirst to get back to letting go of stuff and embracing awareness of life.
What seems to keep us from jumping off and embracing letting go is that we tend to jump, or be pushed off the cliff, into pathos. The Void is filled with un-resolved grieving.
PTSD: Unresolved Grieving is our World Wide Psychiatric and Community Diagnostic Disorder. Thus sayest I!
And, when we don't jump or get pushed off we tend to re-live the wounded-ness, in what is seen as the "Repetition Compulsion".
So, in effect, staying connected to our "Good Life" continuums are ways of protecting us from going (or letting go) into grief. GRIEF.
Capitalized because it is so powerful and present in all of us. I see it, as a trained observer, everywhere and we are All so good at managing and re-directing and re-framing that it is seldom brought to the surface.
Maybe we would do better to use the term:
LIVING THE GOOD GRIEF!
Least Heat-Moon in his book, Blue Highways experienced the same when talking with a young man. This young man went on to describe his father:
" . . . You're doing what he'd give a nut to do. He goes on all the time about selling the house and quitting his job and traveling around the country. Or going back to school. . . ."
Many people, mostly men have caught my attention and asked about my rig, The Avion, and when I describe my journey their eyes kind of glaze over and a wistful expression comes upon them. Some acknowledge and say, in so many words, "Boy, I sure would like to do that."
What is this thirst for adventure and simplicity?
I believe that more and more of us are waking to the reality that our lifestyles are highly arbitrary and not in the best interest of the All. They feel the pinch and the routinization which to more and more comes to be experienced as a kind of slavery!
And, this is true even for ideal type lifestyles. Many can afford to take prolonged and frequent vacations that meet some of the needs. Some acknowledge but also accept that they are pretty addicted to their comforts, home, gardens, food, restaurants . . .
The Good Life!
Well, I certainly have led and do lead The Good Life.
Born in 1939, in the middle time of WWII and coming into awareness near the end (food stamps, sirens, rationing, oleo-margarin) the years following were ones of great prosperity and opening of opportunities for all of my family, parents, siblings, aunts, and uncles, cousins, neighbors, etc.
Soon a small TV and big transistor radios came into our homes. Each of us kids received one (now it would be cell phones or games). That gift still stands out in sharp memory.
Great education, in and out of school. All of us became productive, talented, and wealthy with experiences and opportunities.
And, now, after 70 years of such comfort and "Good Life" qualities mine continues as I am compelled and enabled . . . able to hit the road, to become the gypsy-vagabond-adventurer whom so many idolize and want to experience becoming.
Once again, maybe just my good fortune.
Or, again, the Law of Attraction. How many times I have fantasized about letting go. Practicing by going into the woods with simple food and provisions. A VW Westphalia Van to travel through Mexico in 1968 with my soon to be wife, Kathie. A small trailer, The Casita that Joanne and wandered around in. What great adventures, All.
It is doable. So has been the "Good Life" of homesteading, gardening, communal living, promoting and developing Simple Living Workshops, experimental and practice Ritual Villages.
Now, looking back on so much "goodness" I can see that it was all nickel and dime awareness that all of that was a thirst to get back to letting go of stuff and embracing awareness of life.
What seems to keep us from jumping off and embracing letting go is that we tend to jump, or be pushed off the cliff, into pathos. The Void is filled with un-resolved grieving.
PTSD: Unresolved Grieving is our World Wide Psychiatric and Community Diagnostic Disorder. Thus sayest I!
And, when we don't jump or get pushed off we tend to re-live the wounded-ness, in what is seen as the "Repetition Compulsion".
So, in effect, staying connected to our "Good Life" continuums are ways of protecting us from going (or letting go) into grief. GRIEF.
Capitalized because it is so powerful and present in all of us. I see it, as a trained observer, everywhere and we are All so good at managing and re-directing and re-framing that it is seldom brought to the surface.
Maybe we would do better to use the term:
LIVING THE GOOD GRIEF!
I enjoyed this posting. Life is a leap of faith in any directtion. I find it interesting your comment about not only "seeing" the grief but also recognizing how it is masked by so many venues. Re-directing ones life thoughts does take work and one must be diligent in staying the new course. In quiet times the memories can become bigger than the current dream. A visit with a memory is often a nice fix, but one must remember it is a "visit" and in order to grow we must once again move forward on our journey to learning I think that the grief comes from letting go of all that we once held on to... alll that we were exposed to and taught that gave structure and purpose to our existance. As we let go one layer at a time, it does take a moment to feel and experience that new rawness... The unknown can be a double edge sword.... for though we are to set off in search of the holy grail (love Monty Python) we must say good bye to things and peope and that is not always easy...
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