electricity, phones, grocery store on demand, permanent residence, ease of transportation and assistance. Are these truly a matter of life and death? I was assuming it was O2, love, shelter from the elements/"safety", water, food, sex, sleep, self awareness, and not getting into a motor vehicle with my sis at the wheel, late again for an appointment.
I wonder if civilization addiction is the antithesis of Nature Deficit Disorder?
I never am truly isolated in Nature even if there's no indication of humanity. Why? I do not hold the worldview the human animal is separate/disconnected from and above the rest of the environment. It is a worldview behind the basis for so much destruction and self serving interests outside of consideration of a larger whole. It's based on perceived separation and superiority. It's profoundly interwoven in U.S. German, Russian, and modern Chinese culture, as a few examples. It's significantly important to positive change understanding the role core beliefs have in making decisions. We most often dont know the extent of our beliefs and the role they play in daily assumptions of how the Universe operates and exists.
On a LD hike or similar we get out of norms. I liken it to sobering up like any addict, coming out of being lost in the fog, we may not have known we were immersed. And, YES, in a broader sense we can become addicts to cultural norms; civilization becomes a "drug." Kind of redefines a War on Drugs approach when we start perceiving cultural norms addictions as drug addictions, hey?
I try to live a LIFE as Mark Twain said:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad
What Twain was saying is get out of our norms, out of our comfort zones. As Snarky Nomad mused, "
sadly, the people who make awful excuses are the ones who need to travel the most." Travel = getting out of norms.
And, LD hiking can become a new norm too if we dont embrace a wide diversity and unfamiliarity of approaches and experiences - cookie cutter hikes.
Here's your answer: I'm less prejudiced, bigoted, rigid, afraid, racist, discriminatory, sexist, narrow minded, anti and problem oriented, and more open minded to discovery and exploration, accepting, tolerant, forbearing, patient, loving, joyful, adaptable, adventurous, understanding, and pro and solution oriented because I'm willing to place myself out side of norms. And, it's not a me thing. Anyone(s) can have it! Throw off the bowlines. Take the noose off from around the neck.
Those brief perceptions of isolation where we feel disconnected from the safety of the being tied to the pier results in the possibility of GREATER and more profound connections to a larger whole - broadened horizons figuratively and literally.