Getting out there
wasn’t an occasional thing. It wasn’t a weekend, seasonal, or occasional
thing. It wasn’t a thing to pass time away. It was a lifestyle thing. A walk
through the woods was a daily thing.
Daily walks through
the woods were mostly on account of some kind of work that needed doing …
checking on fences … moving cows from day pasture to overnight corrals …
closing gates … bringing the Jersey milk cow home for the night.
Those normal daily
chores always took a lot longer than necessary on account of all the woods
exploring that somehow arose as part of the normal course of
life for a boy that wasn’t more than 8 or 9 years old when he started wandering
the woods solo.
It was, too, around
that age that I graduated from a BB gun and began toting along that old .22
single shot or a .410 shotgun when out doing my woods chores. The scope and
range of my woods wandering found itself largely expanded with that graduation.
I have the impression,
looking back, that a lot of my peers and teachers in school believed I was
maladjusted and deprived of the better things in life.
I wasn’t good at
organized sports and was always one of the last
ones picked for teams by peers in the schoolyard picks. That was
embarrassing at first but I learned to accept and expect it as a matter of
course. It was also an early on education in how the system works
to reward and to punish based on some imagined preferential performance
prescription. I’ve never been a fan of systems … regardless of their
name or intention.
Systems create
system-dependency and do nothing to promote self-reliance. Systems, in fact,
depend upon this dependency to maintain their existence. The more self-reliant
we become the more we jeopardize the health and welfare of systems.
School work didn’t
interest me. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the intelligence to do it. It was
boring. I was also surrounded by kids and teachers that I shared little in
common with on a personal level. I spent a lot of time staring out the window
thinking about things that were more interesting than reading, writing,
arithmetic, and measuring up to and fitting into all the extracurricular
amusements and games that quantified the lives of the townies I found myself
forced to mingle with.
I was smart enough to
figure out in a hurry just how much I needed to do to make good enough grades
to keep my woods exploring, hunting, and fishing privileges from being restricted when
the report cards were sent home to be signed and returned!
If, looking back,
those childhood peers and teachers were right in believing I was maladjusted
and socially deprived, I’m glad of it. Those maladjusted and socially deprived
years laid down something deep in the fabric of my being that I’ve never been
able to shake loose from.
I tried to put those
roots behind me as a young adult and well into my adult years … tried to fit
into the social scheme of things … and marry myself to the ideals and standards
for success set forth by society. That may work for a lot of people, but it
just never worked out for me. I was, for way too many years, miserable in a
suit and tie and wing tip shoes. I was also gone from my woodsy outdoor roots
for so long … so long on pavement and concrete sidewalks … that getting back
out there away from campgrounds and campground amenities and deep into the deep
woods with its natural inhabitants for a camp with minimal gear was more than
kind of scary at first.
The truth is, though,
that the deeper you get the deeper you want to get. The lure of the wild, and
the deep peace and solitude it affords, is captivating if we will allow it to
capture us. There is something in every clearing, valley, creek, and grove that
stimulates the senses, offers different natural views, and opens wilderness
windows of perspective that heightens the strength and enhances the aroma of
the captivating lure.
I am of the opinion
that it is this lure, and all that is inherently related to it, that is the
real heart, frame, and meaty muscle that gives meaning to woodcraft or bushcraft or
whatever else folks choose to call this thing that comes with a certain set of
skills and tools surrounding it. However, every item in the toolbox … without
the carrier being a captive of this lure … is merely infatuation that fast
grows cold and is regularly replaced with the newest item brought to us by
slick marketing.
Tools? I can recommend
appropriate tools that will stand up to the task without breaking the bank.
The lure?
We are surrounded by
its curriculum. Its scent hangs heavy all around us. It reveals itself in every
morning dew, in every sunrise and sunset, its aroma permeates every breeze, and
crackles in every kindled campfire. Its effects are intoxicating and addicting.
I can talk about it. I can lead people into
its arena. But that’s about all I
can do.