The Journey Chapter 62: Where I Talk About the Butterfly Effect and Living Deliberately

THINKING ABOUT OCEANS AND WATER IN GENERAL

I don’t want to get all scientific in this chapter, but whenever I look at the ocean, or for that matter a lake or river, I am reminded of the semi-accurate statement that the same water that dinosaurs drank, 650 million years ago, is the same water we drink today. In other words, there is no new water on Earth, not now, not five-billion years ago. I say semi-accurate because a small amount of water has escaped into space over the span of centuries; however, the statement about no new water is close enough for a score in horseshoes, and if you understand that reference you have been reading my work far too long.

So, back to the topic at hand. I am in awe.  Mind you, I’m not a big fan of walking a beach and I am rarely mesmerized by the waves, but it is hard not to be impressed by the swells of the ocean, the fact that all ocean water is “connected” to other ocean water, and in theory if you pour a glass of water into the Mediterranean Sea, it will show up in Puget Sound at some point in the future.

It’s the Butterfly Effect only with water wings.

Which brings my flighty mind to this point: There are so many things which are “holy shit” things in the natural world, which leads me to wonder how hundreds of millions of people can be satisfied with watching network television each night? Why the hell aren’t they outside soaking it all in before they are too old to soak anything in other than their sheets, and a nurse is emptying their bedpans?

Ya know what I’m sayin’?

But I’m just a bear of little brain. I don’t suppose what I’m saying makes much sense.

ON LIVING DELIBERATELY

Can anyone tell me where that phrase originated in U.S. History? I do believe my friend, Larry, will know immediately.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. . . . I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

Yes, one of my literary heroes, Henry David Thoreau, from his book “Walden, or Life in the Woods.”

I have four books which travel everywhere with me . . . “Walden,” by Thoreau, “Silent Spring,” by Rachel Carson, “The Tao of Pooh,” by Benjamin Hoff, and “To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I have read hundreds of books, easily more than a thousand, and yet those are the only four which I will not trade away for others.  Two speak of living a simple life, one speaks of protecting Mother Earth, and one speaks of treating all “men” with respect and empathy.

On living deliberately . . .

With each day that passes, as I travel backroads in this country, I am more convinced that my path is the correct one.  Please pay special attention when I say this: I am not trying to convince anyone that my approach to life is the right approach for anyone else. I am explaining to you why I have chosen to forsake my old way of life, cast it onto the trash heap, and adopt this new approach.

It works for me. I cannot say what will work for you.

Long before I started writing articles, and filming videos, about bus life, I was writing articles about living simply.  I was quite ready to strip my life down to the bare bones six, seven, eight years ago and, if you really want to take a deep-dive into my mind and heart, I have been a believer in simplicity most of my adult life. I don’t need things and, although I could not articulate it thirty years ago, I knew I was happier without the normal trappings of civilization.

Let’s take a look at the normal spending course most people take as they enter adulthood.  Either straight out of high school, or straight out of college, a person secures employment. The wages earned go to rent, to food, to transportation, to clothing, and to other miscellaneous expenses. What is left over we will call discretionary income. That small portion of the big picture can be tucked away into some sort of savings (rarely happens), or it can be spent on furnishings, trappings, baubles, shiny toys, whatever floats your Keynesian heart.

If this fictional character is normal, the general rule is the more they make, the more they spend and, wait for it, if they don’t have enough money for the latest toy, they can buy it anyway using a devilishly convenient thing called credit.

And so it goes until it is time to retire . . . except for one thing . . . most people are not playing on a level playing field. Prices rise! Expenses rise! And as those drainage tubes increase in size, your income does not rise proportionately.  It is a game you cannot win . . . unless . . . you make the decision to cut back on the baubles and adopt a simpler, less cluttered, less demanding lifestyle.

Here’s the interesting thing I have found with many people: Their possessions are their security blanket. They feel safe, they feel accomplished, they feel successful, they feel they have value, based at least partially upon the possessions they own. And the idea of not having those things scares the bejeebers out of some people.

Probably none of you reading this; I’m simply speaking about “those” people.

I was one of them.  I am no longer one of them.  And I am happier.

I view the current economic system as a beggar’s game, and the House holds all the cards worth holding. I view the concept of The American Dream to be fantasy, and a rather harmful fantasy at that.  But that is just me. I really do understand that many people, as in tens of millions, enjoy working in order to make money in order to buy things, and that is perfectly all right. I’m talking now to those who feel trapped, who feel frustrated, and who feel like there is no end in sight to the financial problems they face. There truly is an end, but it requires tossing away all pre-conceived notions of financial security and personal self-worth based on money, and it requires making one hell of a sacrifice, daring to jump off the high wire without so much as a whiff of a safety net below.

I took that leap, and without any hint of hyperbole, I have never been happier in my life.

Be that as it may, this chapter is about living deliberately, and I somehow forgot to give you some sort of explanation about what living deliberately looks like.

It begins with a premise, one I think we can all agree upon, namely that life is precious.  It then builds on that, realizing that far too many years, for most of us, were spent living a reactionary life, a life responding to outside stimuli, responding to chance, and responding to outside forces.  A great many people live automatically, daily actions based on learned behavior, or learned patterns inherited from other people.

So, for me, living deliberately means living consciously, living purposefully, making choices about how to spend my money, my time, my focus, and my energy . . . and those choices are aimed at serving myself, feeding my passions, and building a life I deserve, one which coexists with the greater good for my fellow man and Mother Earth.

I hope you found something in this chapter which resonates with you.  You deserve a better life, and I’m just tossing pasta against the wall for you, in hopes that some of it sticks.

Pax vobiscum!