POST # 281
The Marcotte clan in the summer of 1955. (dad probably took the photo)
L-R: Gerry('52), Lynn('53), Mom('16) holding me('55), Judy('49), and Rosie('51)
Six days ago, October 1st, marks the day in 2011 when I left Vancouver to start my "new" life as The Thoughtful Wanderer. This blog would begin twenty days later on October 21st, 2011. Perhaps it's time to reflect on the person I have become over the past six years.
A life, anyone's life is composed of many and varied components. I would argue that one of the main components is the relationships that come and go as life progresses. The path that your life follows, can, and most likely will have a profound effect on your relationships. Additionally, some relationships can have a major impact on the direction your life takes. Of this, I am quite certain.
Let's briefly examine two different life paths, which I will call homebody (HB), and world traveller (WT).
HB grows up in a specific geographical location, and throughout his entire life, he never strays very far away from where he was born and raised. His initial relationships are with his immediate family members, mother, father and siblings if he has any. However, once he begins to attend school, his relationship horizon starts to expand. With formal education completed, the next step in our well regimented society, is to enter the work force in one capacity or another. This new environment will allow HB to expand his relationships if he so chooses. HB likes where he lives, he likes and even loves the people he interacts with, and with a steady paycheque, he begins to dream of a place of his own, that one day he can share with a partner and over time raise some children. Some, and probably most of HB's relationships will be with him from cradle to grave, and if he has the luxury to be able to reflect on his life in his old age, no doubt he will have fond memories of the people he has had the good fortune to spend time with on his one and only journey called life.
That's one way to spend a life.
Now let's examine WT. Initially, its difficult to discern any real difference regarding his relationships when compared with HB. In his early years he interacts with his immediate family members, and just like HB, he forms new relationships throughout his school years. By the time WT graduates from high school, one would be hard pressed to see any difference at all compared to HB. In fact, these two individuals may in fact be close friends. However, somewhere along that first eighteen years of a young life, the seed of an idea is planted in WT's mind, an idea that just won't let go. The idea; why not explore more of the planet than the tightly defined geographical boundaries of where he was born? And it was from that moment forward, that the life of WT really begins to take shape. The impact of that one idea, will have profound effects on WT for the remainder of his life, and at the top of the list is the effect it will have on his relationships as his life continues. And just to be clear, a person can even have relationships with individuals that are long since dead and buried, but who happened to leave a record of their ideas and philosophies in the form of the written word. There is no telling what the impact of a particular book can have, and for WT, there have been many. One of the driving factors that helped shape WT's life, was a basic curiosity for knowledge, and who knows where that comes from, except to suggest that curiosity is a child-like virtue, and for WT, that virtue remained a core part of his personality as the journey through life continued. In fact, as he aged, his curiosity for knowledge expanded, which allowed him to be exposed to all manner of new ideas and topics, some of which were way outside of the mainstream view. Some of these topics were things that one normally doesn't talk about in "polite" company, but fortunately for WT, he had abandoned the idea of trying to live up to the expectations of others, and instead to follow his own path. He chose a life that was true to the person that stared back at him each day in the mirror. It had the effect of leaving him with a content and happy feeling in his heart, but it did have a a negative impact on some very long standing relationships. But as WT pondered his inevitable death (another topic not discussed in "polite" company), he thought, no, he knew in his heart, that if he had the luxury of knowing that his death was imminent, he would be content in the knowledge that he had lived a life that was true to himself. What more could one ask for?
OK, so much for the hypothetical HB and WT. Now let's get to The Thoughtful Wanderer. With those words as the title for this blog, its pretty easy to work out which camp that I fit into. WT is The Thoughtful Wanderer.
2005 was a watershed year for me and it wasn't just because it was the year that I first watched "The Big Lebowski" movie. Much more important than that, 2005 was the year that I was introduced to a book called " The Weather Makers", by Australian anthropologist Tim Flannery. This was my first introduction to the subject of climate change, and from that moment on, my life has been profoundly altered. From my point of view, I would say it has been altered for the better, but there would be plenty of people who might disagree with me. I'm OK with that, but I imagine that some of them are shall we say, less than ecstatic about the person that I have become since 2005.
I really woke up in 2005, and looking back on it now, I find it difficult to believe just how naive I was for the first fifty years of my life. I'm much better now, and what I mean by that is that I'm much better informed than before that year. The bottom line is that I'm a very different person, and the person I have now become finds it very difficult to relate to many of the people that used to be a part of my life, pre 2005. Some of those relationships go a long way back, and here I am speaking of my four older sisters.
Don't get me wrong, I still love them all, and I consider myself very fortunate indeed to have had all of these females caring for me while I was growing up. But because
I've changed so much over the past twelve years, it's now virtually impossible to relate to what's going on in their worlds nowadays.
I suppose that there could be many reasons why we don't relate like we did in the past, but I suspect that the primary one would be that I have a much shorter view of the persistence of humans on the planet then they do. The fact that I am childless by choice, and they all have children and most have grandchildren, it's not difficult for me to understand that the last thing that they would want to talk about is NTHE (near term human extinction). I get that, and if I were a parent or grandparent, I'm quite sure that I would find it extremely difficult to come to terms with this topic. In fact, I would probably do everything possible to convince myself that NTHE is impossible. But I'm not a parent, and I am in complete acceptance of the limited time span of our favourite species, homo sapiens. Bottom line, NTHE is a relationship breaker without a doubt.
So where does this leave The Thoughtful Wanderer in late 2017? Happy? Sad? Content? Probably a mixture of all three with sad coming in a very distant third. But how could this be? For me, that's a very easy question to answer. If you fully accept as I do, that we aren't going to be around much longer, it makes it very easy to get the most out of each and every moment, knowing that there may not be too many more moments to spend. It also allows you to break the shackles of cultural norms, and maybe, just maybe live your life with more passion and purpose. I can only speak for myself, but I find it a wonderful way to spend whatever time I have left. I can highly recommend it. And, in spite of all the changes, I somehow manage to retain my sense of humour, which is a precious thing indeed.
Of course, this blog post which talks about NTHE wouldn't be complete without thanking my dear friend, Dr. Guy McPherson. After all, he coined the term, and more importantly, as a conservation biologist, he understands how species go extinct. He's done a masterful job at following the evidence. He's a scientist, and that's what good, ethical scientists do. And at this late stage in the human experience, all the evidence points directly towards NTHE. And he's done this in spite of all the slings and arrows that have been directed at him over many years now. Its been a very lonely path for him to walk, but walk it he has, in order to tell the world some very uncomfortable truths. He's one in a million. No he's one in a squillion, or at least 7.5 billion, and I am very grateful to count him as a friend.
It's late. Late in 2017, and I believe, as does my friend Guy, that it's late in the human experience and for that reason I will continue to live as I has been doing since January 27th, 2009 when I voluntarily walked away from work that I loved, in order to pursue the life of The Thoughtful Wanderer. It's been an amazing and eye opening experience and a wonderful way to live. I would love to imagine that I could continue this lifestyle until I'm 100 years old, but of course I know better.
.
I am grateful beyond words for ALL of the many relationships from family to friends far and wide that I've had the pleasure of spending time with over the years. Perhaps we all are a composite of the many people we spend time with on life's journey They have all been special in one way or another. I look forward to making new friends along the way, as The Thoughtful Wanderer's journey continues until it no longer can do so.
And of course, those relationships include the non-human ones as well. Here is a recent encounter with some of my bird friends.
And from my most recent trip to Belize, my sheep buddies, Bonnie and Clyde.
living a life of simple acceptance,
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer
