I often joke that if something were to happen to my better half that I’d disappear into the mountains and come out annually to see friends/family, make rounds and return to a life of solitude. There are people out there who’ve done this and sadly not returned. A close personal friend of mine called me selfish for thinking that because my beloved’s life is ended it’s no reason to cut off the rest of the world. In some ways I can see her point, but at this point, I don’t have children and it’s something that fascinates me.
Living off the land fascinates me and I recently picked up a bow to learn the archery skill. It’s a safe hobby and something that I can practice in my own back yard until I graduate to farther and more difficult challenges. Who knows, maybe I’ll even take down a small foul for dinner, there’s quail locally. My maternal grandparents relocated to a small ranch soon after my mother graduated high school and I spent summers with no running water playing among the various plants and animals. I would watch in awe as my grandfather would catch a chicken, remove its head and then show me how to properly remove the feathers so that my grandmother could fix it for dinner. She used tell us that we would “live to see the end”, and “don’t forget your connection to the earth because it gave us life.”
I’m not a conspiracy theorist in any way, but I do listen to murmured whispers and while I’m sure my way of life will continue, I also wonder what if? I’m of the thought, if it’s not hurting anyone, and it’s knowledge, why not. I’m already cooking from near scratch with this new diet and beginning to preserve our overflow of fresh produce. These are proficiencies one would need not only in the event of a catastrophic emergency but also as a human IMHO. Our grandparents knew these skills and like the stories of our forefathers, unless passed down, they were lost to the annals of time. We used to know things like how to sew, cook, and sow, but these days it’s all Internet, Social Media, Drone, Complacency and getting away is a five star hotel someplace exotic.
Growing up with 4 boys my parents opted to camp or the Motel 6 on road trips. I was too young to notice how everyone else was feeling, but I was excited, I enjoyed it. To this day my passion survives and I willingly choose to escape the world for my birthday and go camping. I’ve never questioned why, but I always allow myself one weekend a year(wish it were more) where I disconnect from it all. As long as my better half is here, so am I. My family and friends mean the world, but I also long to live on the edge of a different life. An existence that allowed humanity to reach the pinnacle of life on Earth before turning its back on that which made it. We’re so hurried to do things that mean very little outside of that moment when we should be doing and learning skills that enrich our lives.
I may never become the mountain man that I threaten to become, but the thought does cross my mind. It crosses my mind when I listen to the news, read the paper, and interact with the populous. People are so smart that they’ve outsmarted their common sense and listen like sheep to the drivel that’s being fed to them. I’m of the wholehearted belief that a person can be intelligent, but people as a whole are stupid. In a time when the fittest survived and the weak perished many in today’s society would not pass their genes onto the next generation (rightfully so). I mustn’t be heartless, but I’d be lying if I said that everyone should survive. I know that not even I would have survived had it not been for modern advancements, but then again, my genetic defect wouldn’t percolate into the gene pool either.
