Desperately needing what Gauguin and Thoreau sought….
I’m writing this from a place called Grand Marais on the banks of Lake Superior that largest lake of The Great Lakes. The town is about 50 miles from the Canadian border. Its just a few miles from here to The Gunflint Trail where our two week canoe expedition will begin. The area is currently experiencing a serious heat wave, so my 115 deg F New Mexico training will come in handy!
Since arriving in the USA I have been deep inside a a society that is very way off One Point Zero and while its been wonderful intense exploring, its also been draining! It’s time for me to re-energise and wilderness Nature is where I do that the best.
I’m reading ‘The Social Conquest of Earth’ by Edward Wilson, and he uses Paul Gauguin and David Thoreau as examples of people who searched for ‘the answers’ in Simplicity and Nature. Most would know the stories behind these two quite different men, but David Thoreau’s quest outlined below exemplifies what I have found over the past 12 years of my huge transformation:
Thoreau set out alone in Nature: “To front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach….. To cut a broad swath, and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
Most of the past 12 years have I powerfully experienced what he describes, and I’m sure many of you have too? To me, it is here where inspiration and answers for One Point Zero lie, not in Chicago, Minneapolis, London, Sydney, or the same sort of city ‘where evers’….. In that I don’t mean cities are not part of the future, but rather the new visions for cities lie by seeing how far off being intensely human as we ‘should be’, current city life has taken us..
The next two weeks will be about that simplicity and connection with raw Nature, for Imi and I…. I can wait to use the intense experiences of the last 6 weeks of Trumped by Nature to reflect and find inspiration for the future of One Point Zero…
Imi and I will be going to immerse ourselves in this splendid wilderness, and use the environment to try and answer these three questions:
- What the ‘hell’ can ‘we’ do to get to One Point Zero?
(Those that know Imi, will know that including the word ‘hell’ is part of Imi’s style and an indication of a topic that is very close and passionate to him!! This ‘we’ isn’t about Imi and me, this is about ‘us’ all humans.
- How can we possibly have a Good Life with One Point Zero?
- Should those who have contributed most to the One Point Six and increasing problem ‘pay’ the most for its resolution?
In setting out these questions, I’m inviting you to engage in your own thinking and debates on the issues and your answers.
When we come back after our two weeks we will share with you are thoughts and maybe the answers we arrive at…
I’ll also share with you some of the intense experiences Imi and I have had already had in exploring Amish and other religious views on One Point Zero.
I hope you also use this time to move Your One Point Zero Challenge forward and I’ll ‘see’ you in just over two weeks…!
Have fun!