Evolution Time


There's some changes in the works. Big changes. Yuge changes (couldn't resist).

If you haven't noticed, the world has been on pandemic lockdown. Perhaps nowhere in the US more so than Washington state.

A timeline, for your reading pleasure:

January 20th: First confirmed US case, 45 miles down the road from us. (We have since learned there were many other cases before this confirmation, of course.)

March 11th: My life suddenly got a lot easier. Classes canceled, along with midterms. Businesses, restaurants, etc begin closing. The company I write for put down a hiring freeze, and I suddenly had as much freelance work as I could do.

March 25th: Pretty much the entire fucking region closes down -- public lands, remaining businesses (except grocery stores).

Today, May 19th: Shit is still closed down. By the way, I don't agree with the current severity of the measures. They were fine in March and through April, wise even and 100% backed by the science at the moment. Now, it is fear, caution, and likely a political ploy. Even though I despise T-Rump and his cronies, the boys from the blue are going to guarantee us another fucking four years of destruction if they don't stop playing games.

Anyways......

Politics, pandemics, and power plays aside, the last 60-odd days were good for us. As capitalism turned against the capitalists, it suddenly starting playing out well for us. We now have a very tidy sum of imaginary value sitting in the bank.

Having been trapped in the capitalist/consumerist hamster wheel  for well over a decade, we suddenly had room to breathe, we no longer were playing the game just to survive.

More importantly, we had room to finally fucking think again. And think we did.

24/7 with little to no plans and all the time in the world can lead to great things. We spent our days going on long walks and hikes (there's always places to escape civilization, even in a shut down, if you know where to look). Day drinking on the deck. Foraging food, cooking every damn thing from scratch, brewing our own booze.

Some cool things started to happen

  1.  I killed my fear of death and my ego, and by extension much of my anxiety. Nothing to do all day lead me on some long walks and long days staring at the sky or the sea. I'd throw some food and water into a pack and just set out walking from the front door. One day I walked 18 miles, over a small mountain and to the coast, where I watched the harbor dolphins dance in the waves. I realized some shit, and UNrealized a whole lot more bullshit. I'll get into that on another post.
  2. I remembered my idealism. I had big plans when I was young. Hell, I had big plans up until about 2010, when I sold out to what society told me my big plans should be. Staring up at the sky and talking about old plans and dreams with the one you love for hours on a spring day can jolt you out of the mind fog modern society is designed to put you into. In the immortal words of Queensryche: I remember now.
 Ok, so I guess there was only two really cool things that happened, but they were enough to set into play a huge chain of events, a wave of which we plan to ride for as long as possible. 

I'm back to my old punk rock self.

I'm embracing the so called counter-culture that defined much of my life until suburbia got its hooks in me. No more being a good little liberal, a party that in its own way is just as fascist as the other repubs. Oh, I'm still on the leftist side of the political spectrum, no fears there, I'm just done with centralized government, centralized economies, and authoritarian rule. (And no, I am not a libertarian. I'm neither far enough right nor do I support capitalism enough to fit the American version of THAT party affiliation.)

I'm free of the expectations I let outsiders put on me. Ever notice how we value the opinion of people that think they are important much more than the ones who really are important?

I'm done being a hypocrite and I'm back to living my values -- no excuses, no apologies. 

Stay tuned...

We are building a collective/ecovillage/anarchist permaculture commune. 

Adventure awaits, bitches!  

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