Frank Forencich Asks – Where’s My Habitat?

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Josh

Frank Forencich of Exuberant Animal points out an issue with the way we approach ourselves in the world in a recent blog post.

His complaint is that we (as individuals, and culturally) separate ourselves from our habitats to such a degree that we’ve lost touch with reality.

I couldn’t agree more.

However, I wonder how to go about changing this. And in this post, I ask for your feedback.

Below is my response to Frank’s blog post. Please let me know your thoughts on how to do this – how to get people reconnected with their habitat, with the land that gives them life, in a visceral way.

The oil spill in the Gulf is at least in part a result of our society’s (societies’) addictive use of oil…we can’t separate the drillers from the people for whom they are drilling.

People are so distracted from anything real (habitat)…what will bring them back to awareness? How does one engender awareness?

Science is a process of thought that relies on separating things. It takes dynamic systems and “analyzes” them – breaks them down into “constituent parts” – which is a fallacy. Once you’ve killed and dissected a dog, where is the dog? It isn’t there anymore…a bunch of “parts” are.

We extend this tendency (or habit, whatever it is) into philosophical, religious, economic, and political thinking…

That is, it always comes down to – “This piece is wrong/bad, we must fix it.”

Thus, from the get-go, we’re off on the wrong foot. If we interfered, and that’s what “broke” it, how can we “fix” it by interfering again?

Better to stop doing.

Keep your shoes

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Josh

A lot of people have been commenting on my pictures from the time I spent last week with the Barefoot Sensei.

“Why is he wearing shoes,” they ask?

The answer is – because it’s really cold out there!!!

When it's cold, wear shoes.

Mick is the Barefoot Sensei because he believes that people have lost their primary connection in life – with the Land that supports their life.

The main way that most human beings experience the Land, most often and most easily, is through the soles of their feet.

Hence, Barefoot Sensei.

He does not require people to be barefoot, or encourage people to be barefoot all the time.

Instead, he asks people to use their mind.

The human animal is creative, crafty, and skillful. When the habitat is dangerous, it figures out a way around that danger – whether it’s sharp rocks, sticks, thorns, or…yes, shoes.

However, another good point that Mick makes is this – no factory currently in existence (it is a possibility) can produce a shoe made for your foot.

Hence the mukluks.

For those interested, Mick recommended two sources. The first is Steger Mukluks. Steger was actually also recommended by Tom Brown’s school when I attended it. The beauty of the Stegers is that they are not “custom made” (and so, relatively less expensive than others), but that they are made with traditional materials in traditional ways and so will utterly conform to the shape of your foot over time.

The second is Dave’s Shop. This couple are friends of Mick, and hand-make moc’s and mukluks based on a mold that you create and mail to them.

Me? I live in the City. I buy regular shoes. But I try to get ones that fit, that are flexible, and relatively unobtrusive to my feet – like the Vivo Barefoot…or flip flops.

Which points out another thing to consider – habitat. If you’re in a city, you can do just as much damage to yourself as if you’re in a desert, or in a snowy area. You need shoes when you’re in a place that might damage your feet. Consider your habitat.

The last, and most important thing to think about when using your brain (which you’re hopefully doing now) is this tendency to say “all-or-nothing,” and/or to automatically reject things that are foreign or out of the status quo, or your comfort-zone.

Watch out for this tendency in yourself. Shooting other people down, or crying “hypocrite” because you don’t have the patience to think through things is just as inexcusable as being dogmatic about your opinions or practice.

In fact, they’re basically the same behavior.

Bare Feet, Language, Saxons and Celts

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Josh

A recent article in Discover online describes the discovery of an English podiatrist that:

“Traditional English feet, Jackson says, tend to be broad and somewhat pointed–the toes form a steep angle from the first to the fifth. The Celtic evacuees, in contrast, had toe tips that were almost level with one another, and their feet tended to be longer and slimmer–except for a bulge at the base of the big toe, where bunions form.”

This led to the formation of plenty of bunions in those of Celtic descent.

What interests me here is that the article title, “Human Origins/Language/British Feet,” uses the word “language” in it, though there is no reference to language in the article.

I don’t think it’s incorrect, however!

As the Barefoot Sensei told me during my stay with him, language and walking are very intimately connected.

Since then, I’ve been doing some digging of my own.

More soon!