Hello and welcome to Fresh Air Adventures. This is an outlet for my cultivated and unsolicited perspective. It is ad supported (sorry, but I need to cover costs somehow) for now, but hopefully I can pivot this into the outdoors lifestyle as a service (OLaaS) I dream of running where our team of gear and adventure experts outfit and guide you through inclusive and exclusive getaways consisting of sleeping on the ground, being cold and uncomfortable, being hot and sweaty and dirty and far, far, far from your comfort zone....but with the most soul touching and peace inducing views and experiences you've ever enjoyed.
But that isn't what this is...unless you're an angel investor in which case email me directly (Admin@FreshAirAdventures.com) and let's talk. No, for now this is just a blog with a message. That message is society is trying to kill you, crush your spirit, and grind you away for profit. We all need to realize this and work to make changes in our lives and help those around us we care about realize this as well. Now, this does not mean I am an anarchist or revolutionary of the bricks and Molotov cocktail variety. I am an anarchist of the I hate being only ever offered cheap consumer goods that don't last and then bitched at when I don't fork over my hard earned money for them and the company goes under for failing to address my wants and needs as a consumer.
The American narrative is flipped and flawed along two fundamental lines: 1) Profits over people, and 2) Work over living. These are so stupid as to be painful. I mean literally there are factories in China that were forced to install nets to prevent worker suicides for a product they can't afford but has such a fanatic following in the domestic market that people camp out to buy them. I of course say that from my fundamentally hypocritical high horse of a laptop, but that doesn't mean my view is any less valid.
The profits over people corollary follows thusly, if a company can provide a product or service for consumers at a price that the market will bear then that company should do so. Over time this company will find ways to increase profits of this service or raise prices or both. The first process is preferred as the consumer and the market don't like change. The company will seek ways to lower costs such as reducing the quality of raw materials or increasing work load and efficiency so that the quality of the product or the quality of worker life suffers. The next is to raise the price....but rarely does that coincide with a renewed zeal for quality. Normally the quality continues to decrease hile the price increases.
The work over living conundrum stems from the notion that whoever dies with the most toys wins and therefore more hours and more work is required to get more, more, more. This may stem from the puritan concept of work and salvation or the notion of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, but the result is a populace consuming in order to consume and show off that they consume. Dostoevsky once wrote about how much land a person truly needs and if you're unfamiliar google his story. Why should a society kill itself to make more money than they need to be comfortable? I don't know. Life isn't a race to be won and the thousands of poorly developed Hollywood travesties that always end with the same message of an overworked father realizing the true value isn't market cap but his family should have passed this idea along at some point.
Yet here we are. A race of animals taught to sit up and beg for scraps from the plates of those who praise conformity because it makes for complacent workers whose fear of losing their jobs keeps them from asking for more money or benefits. These are the ills and infections of society in the post-modern era. A collection of people who have forgotten why we banded together in the first place. For once man was hunted on the plains, in the forests, and in the jungles. We huddled around the fire and told stories and watched each other's backs and filled each other's plates and clothed each other's shoulders. Now we sign petitions to remove the homeless from the streets instead of working to cure the causes of homelessness. We all give up a little to succeed together, but the system is leaving people behind and justifying that to all of us by labeling them as junkies or lazy or only wanting for handouts.
The human spirit does not do well inside a cage. Once this country was wild and untamed and human spirit ventured in and across it to make a way in the world. The wild space are disappearing under the blade of bulldozers and housing complexes made from the cheapest materials. And though I don't want anyone to invade my secret wild spaces, I want everyone to get out of their comfort zone and enter the wild, and the food chain, again. Some of you won't make it and that sucks (and is also not legally my fault as you are choosing to enter the wilderness, my lawyers have been very adamant I add this in here; this advice is not intended to be an expert opinion and you must do your own research before trying anything posted on this site and I am in no way liable for any damages you incur while being in the wilderness and being stupid). Some of you will have the best times of your lives because what is living without danger?
Also, if you leave any, and I FU%*ING mean ANY trash out there, please, from the bottom of my heart, never set foot in my wilderness again. If all you want to do is run around the woods, drunk and/or stoned out of your mind making crap tons of noise with blue tooth speakers until 2am while making a mess for others to clean up after you, then do it in your own backyard, local park, or a shark infested estuary because I hate you. I hate you so much I can't even begin to put it into words. You're the worst kind of lazy scumbag and public execution is just the start of my suggestions for your fate. The wilderness is not a playground, but a responsibility that we have to take care of for our future generations. If you don't care about any of that then go read another blog, you're not welcome here.
So if the ills of society are getting you down here is my prescription: take one part fresh air, one part adventure, mix with friends and loved ones around a campfire under a star filled sky in a forest full of trees and see if the slow, steady, and silent sunrise doesn't chase away your blues. Repeat as often as possible.
See you out there or on here.
