Existential Attack

[durulz]

I had one of those terrible introspective moments yesterday.
I happened to be out driving and I pulled over into a lay-by to have some lunch (Ginsters’ chicken and bacon pasty and can of full-fat Coke– class!).
I was just staring outside the window, looking at the grass verge and all the nettles and stingers and rubbish and how unwelcoming it all was.
Then I looked out to the road, where all the cars were going by, where the sun was shining, and it occurred to me that I was alone in this lay-by, no one knew I was there. I’d chosen that spot on purpose, because I thought I’d sooner sit in a nice ‘rural’ spot for my lunch than a tarmacced car park with sales reps eating their, equally nutritious, lunch.
So I was looking out at the grass verge and how horrid and spiteful it was. Not from litter, to be fair; but from the weeds, briars and brambles that grew there.
And I got thinking – why? Why do we go ‘bushcrafting’ (or whatever you prefer to think of it as)? Why are we doing it? Is it an escape? Is it to embrace the natural world? Or an escape from the modern one?
I wasn’t sure myself. Partly it’s a disenchantment with a bland, vacuous, homogenised world. Partly for adventure. Partly because I’ve always spent time alone and when feeling psychologically alone I like to be physically alone. Partly for some other indefinable quality.
But the natural world is a hostile, unforgiving place. We tend to sentimentalise it and look upon it is as some kind of Eden. But it isn’t and never was. It doesn’t want us, but we want it.
Anyway, now I’m rambling and just being a git.
So, why do we do it? (bushcrafting, that is, not ramble like a git. Although…)

 

[tobes01]

I believe Eric Idle may have the answer to your doubts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

 

[SimonM]

I believe Eric Idle may have the answer to your doubts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

I used that song when teaching "The Earth & beyond" for an observed lesson.

My observer loved it...great link, thanks.

Simon

 

[TeeDee]

So, why do we do it? (bushcrafting, that is, not ramble like a git. Although…)

I feel a lot calmer inside , when i go outside.

 

[gregorach]

What have "weeds, briars and brambles" ever done to you?

 

[BorderReiver]

We all have our different reasons.

Me, I just love being away from "civilisation" and the noise and frantic rushing about associated with it.

If you can ignore the frantic struggle for existence of the smaller life forms round about you, "bushcrafting" gives the chance to slide back into the natural pace of nature.

Also, I want to enjoy the natural habitats before my species bulldozes them and covers the soil with concrete.

 

[BorderReiver]

What have "weeds, briars and brambles" ever done to you?

Aye, I missed that bit, it's a good safe habitat for a lot of species; in fact it's all some areas provide.

 

[Toddy]

What have "weeds, briars and brambles" ever done to you?

I was thinking food, medicine, cordage, beauty, fresh air, season in and out

Someone on the forum has a quote about a Westerner seeing the Amazon and saying there's nothing here, and a native saying, "Here is everything"

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[bushcraft_lad]

I believe this is rather hard to explain in some way's it for me is just the feeling of nothing on my mind,A time to relax and get away from the 'real world' as it where

just my 2p regards,

 

[Mesquite]

...why? Why do we go ‘bushcrafting’ (or whatever you prefer to think of it as)? Why are we doing it? Is it an escape? …

For me yes... it's precisely that.

In my job I drive round some pretty grim, horrible areas having to look at carp that people have dumped and left someone else to clear up And what's dumped can be pretty disgusting and grotty as well

Also, some of the clientele (for want of a better word to call them) I deal with can be pretty obnoxious as well... their attitude towards my colleagues and myself make you want to grab them by the throat and give them a damn good kicking.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my job and its challenges but put me in a wood on my own or with some of the folks I've met from this forum and I couldn't be happier.

It gives me a calmness and relaxation of my mind that I can't get anywhere else.

 

[Hoodoo]

Why does it require an explanation? We seem to be the only organisms on the planet that require some kind of rationality for everything we do. I consider it something of a disease.

 

[bushwacker bob]

You need some cream for your rationality? go to the woods.

 

[Rebel]

I think we all have an affinity with nature and a yearning for a simpler life deep inside us. Some of us are far removed from it through sophisticated urban living but those of us who question the Great Society and realize that it creates more problems than it solves want to get back to the way we are supposed to live our lives.

Unfortunately it is nigh on impossible in most modern societies, especially on an overcrowded island like ours where every inch of land is owned by somebody, to escape from our artificial, money obsessed system. As much as many of us hate it we are part of it; bushcrafting and communing with nature are hobbies and pass times for us, a momentary escape that give us the pleasure of being part of what humans have done for thousands of years before we got swallowed up by the jaws of Mammon.

Yes I am an old commune-living hippy.

 

[Eric_Methven]

You either get it, or you don't. I took my niece to the lake district a few years ago. She seemed bored. When she got back home, her mum asked her if she had enjoyed herself. She said it was OK. She asked her if she enjoyed the views. She replied she couldn't see the views for all the bloody mountains.

When I'm out and I see nettles and brambles growing wild, I don't think of them as weeds, but as a food source and cordage, readily available and provided for me by nature whether or not I choose to utilise them.

Eric

 

[tedw]

For me the joy of spending time in "the wild" is like spending time with animals - it's completely real. Humanity wraps itself up in bullshine, office & gender politics, hidden agendas and self-importance. Animals want food or affection from you, but mostly to be left alone. Nature just is. It does not care or even notice you as an individual and it will still be there - I hope - when we are all dead and gone and our concerns are the dust of history.
So I can concentrate on things that really matter and I can do something about - food, warmth, safety, navigation etc. and that grounds me in reality.
Ain't philosophy grand!

 

[HillBill]

I wouldn't say the planet doesnt want us, quite the opposite in fact, we are the planet. If the planet seems hostile then thats just an echo of ourselves, Everything on this planet is made by a fusion of light and sound movement and pressure, including the planet itself. All on the surface is just representation of the struggle of energy that happens around our planet and within our planet.

I have been working on a theory this past week, THE THEORY. It works for everything thus far. If you only knew what we were . Still you will all read about it soon enough.

 

[MrEd]

i have always gone out for walks or mooches in the countryside on my own or other like minded people. i find it a welcome relief from the rat race that is modern life. i really enjoy my time outside, and find it mellows and relaxes me far more than just sitting around on my day off or going to the pub etc. Igo bushcrafting, but often mix it with photography or nature watching.

so for me its an escape and time to relax, reflect and recharge and something that i find essential in my life

 

[nevetsjc80]

i do bushcraft to impress the ladies!!

 

[Klenchblaize]

Why does it require an explanation? We seem to be the only organisms on the planet that require some kind of rationality for everything we do. I consider it something of a disease.

A "disease" that only invades those given of a Soul?

 

[springer5]

For me the joy of spending time in "the wild" is like spending time with animals - it's completely real. Humanity wraps itself up in bullshine, office & gender politics, hidden agendas and self-importance. Animals want food or affection from you, but mostly to be left alone. Nature just is. It does not care or even notice you as an individual and it will still be there - I hope - when we are all dead and gone and our concerns are the dust of history.
So I can concentrate on things that really matter and I can do something about - food, warmth, safety, navigation etc. and that grounds me in reality.
Ain't philosophy grand!

I couldn't agree more ted. It's much the same for me too.

Someone mentioned about "if you can ignore all those tiny creatures struggling to survive", but for me it's the opposite; it's about specifically being part of their world....relating to their struggle - mirrored by my own when I'm in that environment. It's about ignoring the HUMAN society I am forced to be part of the rest of the time.

It gives me a sense of the broader reality of the world around me, not just the tiniest little bubble of civiliation we humans have surrounded ourselves with. As a species our self-awareness causes us to be more conscious of ourselves and our lives than any other species, whilst at the same time, we actually have less control over those lives than we've ever had, in all the most important ways. Yes, we have more freedom over a whole tonne of things, but only in an ever decreasing range of situations, as dictated by the pressures of a bigger and bigger, ever more global, society. For example, we have more products to buy, more hoidays to go on and "surface" things like that, but we are allowed to DO actually less and less, and all the time the increased freedoms are ever more trivial things (eg shopping and holidays) and the decreasing ones are ever more fundamental (eg iving an individual - non-conformist lifestyle). Couple this with such strong "awareness" and human society for many people becomes increasingly unbearable in its current form.

Sir David Attenborough once said that a key difference between humans and other species is that other species mostly change (evolve) to suit their environment, whereas with humans we more often change our environment to suit us.
So for me getting out there and living simply is about enjoying fitting into nature's rules rather than trying to insist that she fits mine all the time (or in fact not even MINE, but another human's imposed on me via society), rules which are "lifleless" and "anti-holisitc".

Have you ever noticed how happy the poorest third world people often look when you see them on TV documentaries. Their lives are incredibly hard, dangerous, and materially deprived, and yet they are always smiling and laughing (obviously not in cases where they are starving or suffering malnutrition etc, that's different of course, and a specific situation, but just when they are living their normal day-to-day lives in reasonable health). Compare that with the average face you see in the first world. THAT is what I am trying to find, for just a few days every now and again, when I go out into the "wilds", and dump human society where it belongs.

To say that nature "hates us" is anthropocentric. It only appears to do so if we view it relative to our only known alternative - human society. There is no love and hate, good and bad, cruelty and kindness, outside of human society and human perception, so if we can abandon those, we are free. It may seem "scary" to think in those terms, but again it's only scary because of where we are thinking from (human "values").

Just my (rather too long) ramblings for what they're worth

Great idea for a thread though durulz