Friday 27 April 2012

FOUND IN THE ROCKS: MAN OF LOW INTENT

LIKE A HUNGRY COYOTE--I WAKE UP TODAY IN A MOOD TO HUNT.  I WILL GO FIND-----SOMETHING!---SOMETHING TO LOVE--- TO HATE---TO SOLVE---TO MARVEL AT.
Longfellow spurs me onward:
 "Let us then be up and doing,
  with a heart for any fate;
  Still achieving, still pursuing;
  Learn to labor and to wait."
Take my morning walk---survey my scene--ask what is calling to me.
Walk to this valley---see houses widely scattered---why do people live so far apart?  Consider going out there to find out.

Decide instead to hook up and drive 50 miles to this fascinating place.

Believe it or not, people (and coyotes) are living out there among those giant rocks.

You can drive into them. I settle in for a few days.


They are a wonderland of secret nooks and crevices.

This guy has found his hideaway---lives in that campershell---protected from the heat by aluminum bubblewrap. Never saw him emerge---went looking elsewhere for a story.

Ahh yes!  There's my guy---resting in the shade on a lawnchair.
I learn that he has lived in his car for years---stays in this county--summer and winter.  I eventually got a look inside---he has not even bothered to engineer it for comfort. (remove 3 seats and platform in a comfortable foam bed etc)
Meet "Bill" the focus of this entry.  With some careful and patient inquiry, he told me his story:  A
 college graduate in agricultural science---worked some years---then lost his job---and lost heart.  He marshaled his savings and resources---calculated he could subsist indefinitely if he reduced his expenses to about $200 a month.  He did so---and has done so for many years.  His pleasures are reading and animal watching.  He left next morning to go watch turkeys.

RANDY RUMINATES:   Oh sweet people--this was a disturbing interview:  In some respects I am looking into a mirror---for that is essentially my strategy.  AND YET---AND YET--there is something terribly wrong,( I think,) in this radical retreat from humanity. Something essential is missing in his strategy:  HE DOES NOT INTEND TO DO THE WORLD ANY GOOD. He is turned inward--focused on survival and not thrival. I say it is not enough just to do no harm.

RANDY RANTS:  Self reflective consciousness is so miraculous a gift that it demands to be put to use.  I believe everyone on this planet owes something to the rest of creation---To be up and doing in some way to further the creative process.
Imagine someone giving you a billion dollars and you chose to do nothing with it.  That is the staggering ingratitude of any human who's been given the miracle of self awareness and does nothing with it.

UPDATE ON THE QUEST-FOR-COMMUNITY CARAVAN:  We are enjoying ourselves on a cool mountaintop inventing ourselves as a community and moving to a new location Monday.    




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