Around a week ago, I met a really interesting guy. He was one of the pioneers in the early days of trekking adventures, which grabbed the sexy name of expeditions. We have always mythologized the great explorers, those who went where no one had ever gone before, which of course always ignored the indigenous cultures and their innocent welcoming parties, having their dignity pickpocketed by those first trailblazers. Well, that was centuries ago and these new folks were providing regular people with the experiences of a life time and unlike their predecessors, they were very respectful of those cultures and the natural world they visited.
We had a great conversation. I had been a part of his world and know a little bit about it, which is what got me going on this story. The first companies had their beginnings in the late 60’s and early 70’s, taking people places you only saw in National Geographic. I managed to become part of the nature tourism world right around ’99, quite some after these initiates, like my new found friend. I stumbled into that world ass first and it’s another one of my stories I enjoy sharing, but I got to keep it short.
I was traveling in Belize back then and ended up on a small boat, with a handful of strangers. I was on my way to one of the cayes, islands off the coast. If I tell you why I was there, I will have to kill you and all your relations. It is a good story, but not a great one. One of the guys on the boat was a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the folks who own the Bronx Zoo and a bunch of research stations all over the world. Over the screaming roar of the outboard motor, he told me he was on a research assignment and that his bosses back at the Bronx Zoo were increasingly interested in getting into the nature tourism business.
I got back home to Santa Fe, NM and had managed to secure the name of the head of conservation at the WCS. We had a series of phone conversations and I somehow managed to ingratiate myself to him with my sincerity, certainly not my expertise. Next thing I know, I had bullshitted my way into a very high level meeting to discuss how “I” was going to create a network of ecolodges for them. I had no idea what I was doing, but did what I always do, which is to contact someone I know, who has at least some knowledge of the subject. Again, how I know this person is a long story and not germane to the business at hand. However, he put me in touch with a monumentally, colorful guy, an extremely bright human being, who had been living in that world for many years.
it’s funny, the fellow I recently met and this marvelous character from my past, reminded me of each other and my life back then, when I traveled throughout Central America with a back pack, hiking boots laced to it. I felt like a Jewish Indiana Jones from Queens, NY and I was secretly the coolest person I had ever met! I got to see parts of the world I had never seen and started to look at it in ways I never imagined before. Primarily through my friend at that time, I gained a kind of global perspective that I carry with me to this day.
When I met this new person, my entire life from those backpacking days came back to life. While he has had so much more experience than myself, I felt as if I had met a kindred spirit. He wanted me to read an article written by a guy, written back when I just entering his world of adventure, thirty years ago.
Well, of course I read and it gave me the impetus to write this story to you. The author’s name is Jared Diamond and he wrote about the historic, hunter-gatherer societies from thousands of years ago, with a handful still in existence. It was a fascinating read. I read it like some guy, who had been a part of all sorts expeditions, over romanticizing about my life back then. It gave me the words I have been looking for for so long now, trying to describe where we are and how we have gotten here from those ancient times.
Back in the days of the hunter gatherer societies, our ancestors were a part of nature, dancing an exquisitely perfect dance with it, never missing a beat. Somewhere along the way, we became apart from nature, an almost undetectable contraction, but a world of difference in meaning.
Those people were primitive, an interesting word, especially when we look at where we’ve come from and where we are today. A synonym for it is original, a word with tremendous significance in the Zen world. It’s the search for who we have always been, our face before birth. We left that person behind, no one we’d ever invite to a party, because it would simply be too embarrassing. In the world of woke, there is no room for this kind of soul purity.
Somewhere back then, around ten thousand years ago, a cave to cave salesman came around and grunted to his hairy brethren that there was a better way. He called it progress, a wonderfully exciting concept. We could make the natural world serve us, putting it to work, devoid of any consequences, beyond our immediate gratification.
Since that opportunistic fork in the road, we have never thought to adjust our behavior. The cruel joke on us all is that nature was always in charge, back then and right now. The original humans, in their ill fitting loin cloths, understood this, while you and I, their off spring, have gotten so damn busy, we’ve lost that original connection.
I got news, tomorrow does not have the goddamn answers; they sit comfortably in yesterday. When we disconnected from nature, we disconnected from our humanity. We are only part of the whole puzzle and we are going to be forced to embrace it or perish.
I think we are going to experience a kind of global reset by around 2100. Thelma and Louise took flight off the cliff and we were left with them suspended in mid air. I think they survived, badly bruised and in some kind of suspended animation. They will wake up around the turn of the century, at the bottom of a cliff, living in a lush land of make believe. They decide they are going to rule the world, one that embraces all our differences, living in harmony with nature, healing all our wounds.
I love happy endings, even if they are wishful thinking.
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