L.I.F.T.

When I attended Tom Brown’s Trackerschool a few years ago, one of the things Tom said was that the only cure for our civilization was to get people participating in nature again.

Mick Dodge, the Barefoot Sensei, has a similar belief (though alternate means).

Do I need to say that I agree with them?  Okay, then I will – I agree with them.

Our current culture is so far removed from nature that it’s scary.

By “nature” I mean “what is natural.”  Not man-made “nature.”  That’s called “culture.”  I mean, cycles of seasons, cycles of moons, cycles of years.  I mean tides.

I mean “ecosystems” – but not in the sense of a closed-off “ecosystem.”  I mean it in the sense of the-thing-that-you-live-within.

Why do I think this is important?

Well, we come from this nature.  All of the things that we do rely on it.  Our ideas about things are largely constructions these days.  They’ve been built up over years, decades, eons.  Society, and civilization, and our various cultures, are largely constructions that have taken on lives of their own.  Now, many people are hard-pressed to say what is “natural.”

But it’s actually the simplest thing to do.  Here’s how you do it:

Take away.

Strip things away, until you get to the place where there’s nothing left.  No TV, no cell-phone, no computer, no clothes, no books, no cars, no sidewalks, no toilets, no buildings, no politics, no religion.

There is nature.

It is still there.  It is there while you read this.

I’m advocating that we all get closer to nature.  I think we need to become less and less, as far as our material and mental possessions go.  I think we need to reduce entirely, and return.

I’m full of optimism and hope that this can occur right now…for a few reasons.

First, the focus on “the environment” (kind of a silly phrase – which environment? – but hey, it sticks) has led people to a greater awareness of ecological issues (if not their own environments…sometimes…).

That concern by “consumers” has led corporations to take greater interest in the environment.  While this is a double-edged sword, with car companies pushing hybrid vehicles (it’s still a “new car” folks – pollution due to construction, fabrication, and transport of the vehicle hasn’t changed a bit – and the gas mileage is really insignificantly lower than that of regular cars), and other companies pushing other new “green” products (made of plastic, which is a petroleum (read, oil) product…anyone out there? hello?), it still has led to (albeit, mostly weak) initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and an infantile level of thoughtfulness about ecological responsibility.

Second, there seems to be a loss of faith in some regarding the general state of things.  People are starting to question, and to feel comfortable questioning, the way things are.

While Michael Moore’s most recent foray may not be everyone’s cup of tea (don’t know if it’s mine, I haven’t seen it yet), he is indicative of this movement…this push to seek better alternatives.

The problem we face is our existing culture, which will seek to subsume any efforts, and absorb them into itself.

That’s how systems work.  Any system takes the energy that is given to it and uses it for its own ends (not for the ends that the “energy itself” would’ve hoped for).  For instance, when you eat dinner.  The spinach or steak you eat may have had its own intention.  But your body will use it for its goals.  Beyond that, your cells will use that spinach or steak for the goals they see fit (perhaps, grimly, cancer) – not for the goals you might have in mind yourself (6 pack abs, anyone?) – even though those cells comprise you!

Systems speak aside…it’s time we return.  Is it too simple?  Is there a way to package simplicity, so we can sell it?  Is there a way to market “nothing?”

My mother had a great analogy for me today.

She compared the process (or attempted process) of changing habitual actions in life to a scenario where you’re continually getting hit on the thumb with a hammer.

Sounds painful, right?  Well it is.

But how many times in life do we continue to do painful things, in spite of seemingly obvious (and painless) solutions?  More importantly, why do we continue down our habitual paths?

A lot of it has to do with our individual “structural” histories – our internal structures, our personalities (which are manifest in our flesh, by the way) – and what those structures allow or do not allow us to think, feel, or do.  This is speaking from a “systems” perspective.  The rules that apply to systems apply to this scenario.  Systems are resistant to change.  More on systems in a later post.

When your personal history (which is your “structure”) has no context showing you that it’s possible to move your thumb out of the way of the repetitively descending hammer, there it sits, getting smashed every time the hammer comes down.

It seems strange to me, but the truth is that something has to intervene at this point.  Something has to show you that it’s possible to move your thumb.

Not only that, but frequently, something (and it could be the same something, or a different something) often has also to show you how to move it!

What happens next is odd to me, as well.  Because at this point, you have to muster up the determination actually to try the new thing.  It doesn’t happen just because something showed you it was possible, and then something (else) showed you how to do it.  You have to make an effort and actually try it.

And that effort is not small.  Even for the tiniest action (like moving your thumb), and even in a situation where all you can do is gain from the action (you aren’t going to get the thumb chopped off if you move it out of the path of the hammer in this scenario, you’ll just risk not feeling pain), the effort to do something different, with unknown consequences, is ENORMOUS.

This fact of nature is the mother of the phrase – “Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.”

It’s easier to stick with bad, destructive habits, than it is to change.

But why would nature do this to us?