It's good to be home. We spent all day lounging around with a much-missed pup, processing the trip. It's impossible to fully verbalize the experience, but I committed to the attempt when we opened up our journey to you, so I'll do my best.
Follow the tracks of Spring
As Summer advances -
Past the lands of the Wetigos,
Until you find yourself
Going to the Sun.
Here, Brother Bear guards
Great Mother as she weeps.
Call out to him as her child,
And he will let you pass
Into her full embrace.
Hold fast to her bosom -
Cold, yet all around her is warm.
Drink
From her streaming tears and
Realize.
There is no sorrow.
She has mourned
In cold and darkness, but
No longer.
These tears are life -
Pure and untouched,
Rushing into the depths of the Earth to
Quench the thirst
Of her children.
Ushering in an era
Of growth -
And reclamation.
I wrote that out of pure response to my experience at Glacier, and it sets the tone for the realizations and affirmations of the trip. Our conversations and musings wandered, but the idea of HOW to successfully achieve the reclamation of our world dominated. In all our travels, we found more and more who are feeling the need to take back our community and create a future that represents what we really believe.
We debated possible solutions (and collections of solution parts) for unemployment, welfare, healthcare, the prison-industrial complex, elections, science, abortion, and a plethora of other topics. We spent 30 days talking almost exclusively about religion, politics, and controversial issues; had effectively zero personal space; and no one died. Not only did no one die, there were few arguments at all (and those were spurred by the space issue). Why?
1. Money never came into play. We had the benefit of all having planned and saved so that everyone's third of expenses were covered.
2. We all spoke up. Yes, there were times someone felt not heard. It wasn't for long. Neither of us allowed ourselves not to be fully heard, or each other.
3. Respect. This was the one we violated the most, and it always led to a quick rectification due to #2. 2 & 3 are good checks on each other, and with both any topic and any perspective is possible. With this, active listening is engaged, and you really begin to understand the perspective of the speaker, not just the words.
All of these skills are falling into short supply in our Great Oppression.
As I pondered what the hell went wrong and how to fix it, I found myself with a laundry list of symptoms - from healthcare to education to food to government and onward - and a reason clearly spelling itself out. It's us. Yes, America was founded on the interests of the elite, but by on the backs and bodies of her people. America is not a religious nation; she is not her government nor her economy. America is the spirit of her people and ourstory. They've taken that from us... Or rather, we've all too eagerly let it be taken. Wal-Mart hasn't changed practices because the people haven't demanded it. Why haven't enough people demanded it? Slavery's bad, right? Children in sweatshops still exist. Thousands of farmers get violently evicted by Big Ag and private corporate armies all over the world every year. The list could go on for days. The question is... why?
We rated convenience over each other, as a species. Nationalism made everything not American inferior, and we allowed our bubbles to shrink. The children in Asia in sweatshops become invisible to cheap, fast goods. We can afford more. We bought more crap and ran for the distraction. I can't blame us. Denial is a powerful thing. Now we're addicts to consumption, to things. We know our government is abusing us, and much like a battered spouse, we try to rationalize how it's the way it's supposed to go. We took the drug they fed us in order to jump start our post-war economy and ran with it. We're addicts to the distractions. We don't want to process the truth of our impact... But we're starting to, and this time we're starting with those who realized things were off in the past. There is nothing new here but what we can add to the non-cannibalistic, the non-Wetigo side.
As we listened to farm reports is the mid-west, we realized how close we are to food shortages. We committed to building community gardens and farm networks to make sure our communities are fed. We started talking about skill-shares and teaching communities how to provide for their own needs. At best, they'll never really need it, but at worst they will be less reliant on the system for survival if the economy continues to collapse. Watching your child starve will make monsters out of most, and avoiding that is a first priority in my eyes.
So many are staring to ponder the same queries, but there's something new going on. We aren't just questioning and debating. We're doing. Each action is momentum for a vibe coursing through the energy of our species, urged on by the collective knowledge and relizatioms of those who paved the way for us to live this experience, this point in history when we are on the brink of completing a puzzle that has been in the works for tens of thousands of years... but I'm sure those around when we figured out each piece before thought theirs to be the final as well. Each piece must be understood if our human dream can ever be encouraged.
I learned a lot about myself as well, and identified some rather unpleasant character traits. Between the interrupting and hijacking people's thoughts, it's a wonder anyone's ever felt they managed anything resembling an actual conversation with me. Okay, perhaps that's exaggerated, but only slightly. I speak so fondly of equity, but I suppose I've got a decent amount of work to do before I can really claim to always act accordingly. Luckily, I travelled with two very vocal, determined individuals who were as patient at the repeated need to point out to me that I'd attempted to silence them as any two people could be. I hear them when they talk now in a different way. My brain shuts up more and processes their thoughts. Amazing how that changes things.
We saw each other. We saw the country. We took the time to look past the surface and into the truth of things. We lived on gut checks, and we heard the stories of those along our way. We felt the vibe of this country, and the vibe is Reclaim! We don't need them to fix it. We can do that on our own... and we will.
Much love and safe travels,
Melissa
Friday, July 20, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Last Few Days of Our Trip.
Just wanted to let everyone know that we made it back A-OK. The Badlands and Black Hills were awesome. We spent a day hiking around and checked out the Wind Caves, some of the oldest caves in the world and over 100 miles of caves packed into a tiny area! It was cool at 51 degrees which gave us our first respite from the heat wave in over 10 days :)
After our South Dakota adventure, we head out to Yellowstone. I have the most mixed feelings about Yellowstone as perhaps any place I have ever been. We arrived to see beautiful mountaintops and streams, and geysers and trees, and beautiful scenes that could have come out of a storybook. This was coupled with a feeling like I was somewhere in between downtown Los Angeles and Disneyland...they took one of the most beautiful places in our country and commercialized the hell out of it. Hotels, gift shops, boardwalks, and restaurants surrounded some of the most pristine areas of the park. One one hand, I love the accessibility for people to come and see nature, but it was just too much. Fortunately, it started raining and all the tourists went back to the hotel to sip on mojitos by the pool. This was our chance!! Donning our ponchos and warm gear, we set off on the trail for an awesome hike along a ridge to an overlook (of course we didn't bring our cameras for that one :P).
After Yellowstone, we went to the Grand Tetons for our last stop. I'm definitely going back here before I go back to Yellowstone. Beautiful towering glaciers on mountains with pristine lakes, wildlife, and really cool people that were there to enjoy nature. We had planned on doing a loop around Phelps Lake, but the ranger told us about a 30 foot jumping rock in the area, so we decided to do that. Once we got there, we talked to some people that were jumping and watched a few people go. After climbing up to the top, I got the usual feeling of terrifying sickness in my stomach (inherited from my fear of heights as a kid), but after pumping myself up, it was jumping time! What an awesome feeling to jump off those rocks and plunge into that searing cold water from 30 feet up. The jump of the trip definitely goes to Melissa who rocked the complete butt/back flop. When she came up, we could tell she didn't know whether to laugh or cry and I think both of those happened...wish I had a pic :P After lizard-ing it on the rock for awhile, we decided that it was time to go with about 30 hours before we had to return the car.
We took off on a 15 hour drive through the night trading off sleepy drivers for (mostly) awake passengers and made it to Davis at about 9:00AM. After hanging with the family for a bit, Melissa and Doc took off for San Diego, and got there in time to return the car. No damage, no extra fees!! Even though Doc did send me a text saying that we had to talk about the car...(what a jerk).
It's kind of unreal to think that our trip is over and how it flew by so fast, but it was really the perfect time for what we did and I'm happy to be home in Davis hanging out with the family and sleeping in a bed (for 14 hours last night).
It proved much more difficult than we thought to do consistent posting throughout the trip, but I'll let everyone know when we have our photo album up. Pictures speak much more clearly than any post I could do but all I can say is WOW!! What an amazing trip...I can say with confidence that I have no idea what I'm going to do now after I move out of my apartment in San Diego, but after a month of having some beautiful experiences in cities and in nature and meeting some beautiful people, I got a lot of perspective on what I want to accomplish with my life. If there's one thing this trip taught me it's to float with intention and a positive mindset and keep my eyes open for my path to float to. Thanks everyone for following our trip; it means a lot to know that people care about what we are doing :)
We might continue this blog or another blog, but I'll let everyone know for sure. Right now, most of my effort will be going towards reclaimtogether.org and finding out where I'm going to live. Every one of us has infinite possibility for what we can do in life, so lets work together and support each other and make it happen!
Much love,
David
This was so cool. Our shadows projected on a mountain a couple hundred feet away in the Badlands.
After our South Dakota adventure, we head out to Yellowstone. I have the most mixed feelings about Yellowstone as perhaps any place I have ever been. We arrived to see beautiful mountaintops and streams, and geysers and trees, and beautiful scenes that could have come out of a storybook. This was coupled with a feeling like I was somewhere in between downtown Los Angeles and Disneyland...they took one of the most beautiful places in our country and commercialized the hell out of it. Hotels, gift shops, boardwalks, and restaurants surrounded some of the most pristine areas of the park. One one hand, I love the accessibility for people to come and see nature, but it was just too much. Fortunately, it started raining and all the tourists went back to the hotel to sip on mojitos by the pool. This was our chance!! Donning our ponchos and warm gear, we set off on the trail for an awesome hike along a ridge to an overlook (of course we didn't bring our cameras for that one :P).
After Yellowstone, we went to the Grand Tetons for our last stop. I'm definitely going back here before I go back to Yellowstone. Beautiful towering glaciers on mountains with pristine lakes, wildlife, and really cool people that were there to enjoy nature. We had planned on doing a loop around Phelps Lake, but the ranger told us about a 30 foot jumping rock in the area, so we decided to do that. Once we got there, we talked to some people that were jumping and watched a few people go. After climbing up to the top, I got the usual feeling of terrifying sickness in my stomach (inherited from my fear of heights as a kid), but after pumping myself up, it was jumping time! What an awesome feeling to jump off those rocks and plunge into that searing cold water from 30 feet up. The jump of the trip definitely goes to Melissa who rocked the complete butt/back flop. When she came up, we could tell she didn't know whether to laugh or cry and I think both of those happened...wish I had a pic :P After lizard-ing it on the rock for awhile, we decided that it was time to go with about 30 hours before we had to return the car.
We took off on a 15 hour drive through the night trading off sleepy drivers for (mostly) awake passengers and made it to Davis at about 9:00AM. After hanging with the family for a bit, Melissa and Doc took off for San Diego, and got there in time to return the car. No damage, no extra fees!! Even though Doc did send me a text saying that we had to talk about the car...(what a jerk).
It's kind of unreal to think that our trip is over and how it flew by so fast, but it was really the perfect time for what we did and I'm happy to be home in Davis hanging out with the family and sleeping in a bed (for 14 hours last night).
It proved much more difficult than we thought to do consistent posting throughout the trip, but I'll let everyone know when we have our photo album up. Pictures speak much more clearly than any post I could do but all I can say is WOW!! What an amazing trip...I can say with confidence that I have no idea what I'm going to do now after I move out of my apartment in San Diego, but after a month of having some beautiful experiences in cities and in nature and meeting some beautiful people, I got a lot of perspective on what I want to accomplish with my life. If there's one thing this trip taught me it's to float with intention and a positive mindset and keep my eyes open for my path to float to. Thanks everyone for following our trip; it means a lot to know that people care about what we are doing :)
We might continue this blog or another blog, but I'll let everyone know for sure. Right now, most of my effort will be going towards reclaimtogether.org and finding out where I'm going to live. Every one of us has infinite possibility for what we can do in life, so lets work together and support each other and make it happen!
Much love,
David
Friday, July 13, 2012
Trekking!
We left new york a couple days ago and after a couple hours in dc made our way west!
We drove through west virginia which was beautiful minus the confederate flags and racist graffiti in the bathrooms at rest stops. We stopped and talked to a lady at a gas station who did art on bird feathers.
Some 1000 miles and 36 hours later after stopping for a refuel at the ihop at 5am we made it to kansas city to see our friend madison who we know from san diego. After washing off the road stank we hung out with her family and ate some delicious tuna sandwiches and shot the breeze. Thank you madison for the hospitality. Always good to see you...come visit us soon!
We're now in south dakota heading to the badlands and the black hills. Should be awesome. After that its on to yellowstone, davis, and then back to san diego. Its been an amazing trip so far and I'm looking forward to a few more days in nature before we head back. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!
-David
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Reclaim San Diego
Thanks to the help of Anoki, Tim, Aaron, Doc, Melissa, and others, reclaimtogether.org is now up for San Diego!! This website is basically a tool that people can use to connect on community projects that create solutions for the problems that we are collectively facing. My vision for it is a place to collaboratively share skills, knowledge, and effort into reclaiming our world and helping people empower themselves to make change, even if it's just a small step forward.
We got a lot of interest in this project and wide eyes after telling people about it at the Occupy National. There are some requests already to get it started in other cities. We're holding off on expanding it to other cities for now, while we work out the kinks with the San Diego site but eventually we want it to be in every city and specialize different parts of the website for education, skill sharing, engineering, science, and other topics. It's really growing organically for now, but lots of things on the horizon!
Add projects you are working on if you think it fits with our mission!
Thanks to everyone who helped to get this baby off the ground!
-David
We got a lot of interest in this project and wide eyes after telling people about it at the Occupy National. There are some requests already to get it started in other cities. We're holding off on expanding it to other cities for now, while we work out the kinks with the San Diego site but eventually we want it to be in every city and specialize different parts of the website for education, skill sharing, engineering, science, and other topics. It's really growing organically for now, but lots of things on the horizon!
Add projects you are working on if you think it fits with our mission!
Thanks to everyone who helped to get this baby off the ground!
-David
Bonjour de Montreal!
Since we haven't blogged since Chicago (seems like that was a month ago!), I thought I'd give a quick update before I crash out here at the hostel I'm staying at in Montreal. All is well; missing my family and friends but having the time of my life!!
Chicago was awesome. When we got there it was about 100 degrees outside with about 100% humidity but I was stoked to see the town so I grabbed my nalgene and went for about a 10 mile trek through the city all day. People were really nice, and although it seemed a little corporate-San Diego-ish in the downtown, it still had that soul of an old city with a lot of history. Doc, Melissa, and I tried to make it to the Occupy Southside Chicago General Assembly, but there was nobody there except for a couple University of Chicago students that were trying to see what was going on as well. After waiting for awhile we decided to split and went to get some grub. Fun fact: you can bring your own beer for free to lots of restaurants in Chicago! Unfortunately we weren't prepared for that, and alas I will have to wait until next time to eat my calzone with some good beer. Chicago is definitely a cool city and on my list of place to go back to and explore more.
From Chicago, we drove east to visit my grandparents in small town Wooster, Ohio along with a new travel companion, our host Jackie from Chicago who decided to travel with us on our adventure that would end at the Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia (more to come on that). Wooster is where my whole dad's side of the family is from, starting with my great grandfather who emigrated there from Russia at the beginning of World War 1 and is where my dad was born and raised. It was great to see my grandparents and learn even more about my family and my roots (not to mention showers after being in car for 5 hours drenching in our sweat and being a little too close for that many fart touches). We weren't able to stay long since the Occupy National Gathering had already started and we left at about midnight for Philly (we have become a rugged team of night drivers).
Philadelphia was a whole experience in it's own...one that I think deserves it's own post. Such an amazing experience coming together with like-minded people from around the country and around the world to talk about how we are going to fix the problems in our world. We didn't always agree (as is the case often in Occupy) but there was a level of respect that was rare and we developed a tight-knit community in the 4 days that we were there. Also, I got to play a new song that I wrote (along with a couple others) for WPEB 88.1 FM Philadelphia. So much to talk about, so that's all I'll put for now (I'm tired :P)
We drove from Philly to NYC where I got to hang out with my cousin Adam and his girlfriend Stephanie at their place in Brooklyn. I was planning on staying there for a few days but Doc and Melissa wanted to take a trip up to New England and go back to NYC and offered me a ride to Plattsburgh, NY which was only a short bus ride to Montreal, which was on my list of places I had to go to on this trip so I jumped on the opportunity and here I am!
I'll be in Montreal all day tomorrow and will be leaving sometime on Monday. I came at the perfect time! I just got back from the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal which was awesome and had all kinds of different types of music and artists. There must have been 200,000 people out there on the streets tonight. I met some really cool dudes at the hostel who were from Paris but live here in Montreal and cruised around with them to check out the festival. Just got back home now and I think I might finally get a full night's sleep :)
I'll hopefully be able to post again soon. We love seeing comments on here and knowing that people are reading these :) Much love.
-David
Chicago was awesome. When we got there it was about 100 degrees outside with about 100% humidity but I was stoked to see the town so I grabbed my nalgene and went for about a 10 mile trek through the city all day. People were really nice, and although it seemed a little corporate-San Diego-ish in the downtown, it still had that soul of an old city with a lot of history. Doc, Melissa, and I tried to make it to the Occupy Southside Chicago General Assembly, but there was nobody there except for a couple University of Chicago students that were trying to see what was going on as well. After waiting for awhile we decided to split and went to get some grub. Fun fact: you can bring your own beer for free to lots of restaurants in Chicago! Unfortunately we weren't prepared for that, and alas I will have to wait until next time to eat my calzone with some good beer. Chicago is definitely a cool city and on my list of place to go back to and explore more.
From Chicago, we drove east to visit my grandparents in small town Wooster, Ohio along with a new travel companion, our host Jackie from Chicago who decided to travel with us on our adventure that would end at the Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia (more to come on that). Wooster is where my whole dad's side of the family is from, starting with my great grandfather who emigrated there from Russia at the beginning of World War 1 and is where my dad was born and raised. It was great to see my grandparents and learn even more about my family and my roots (not to mention showers after being in car for 5 hours drenching in our sweat and being a little too close for that many fart touches). We weren't able to stay long since the Occupy National Gathering had already started and we left at about midnight for Philly (we have become a rugged team of night drivers).
Philadelphia was a whole experience in it's own...one that I think deserves it's own post. Such an amazing experience coming together with like-minded people from around the country and around the world to talk about how we are going to fix the problems in our world. We didn't always agree (as is the case often in Occupy) but there was a level of respect that was rare and we developed a tight-knit community in the 4 days that we were there. Also, I got to play a new song that I wrote (along with a couple others) for WPEB 88.1 FM Philadelphia. So much to talk about, so that's all I'll put for now (I'm tired :P)
We drove from Philly to NYC where I got to hang out with my cousin Adam and his girlfriend Stephanie at their place in Brooklyn. I was planning on staying there for a few days but Doc and Melissa wanted to take a trip up to New England and go back to NYC and offered me a ride to Plattsburgh, NY which was only a short bus ride to Montreal, which was on my list of places I had to go to on this trip so I jumped on the opportunity and here I am!
I'll be in Montreal all day tomorrow and will be leaving sometime on Monday. I came at the perfect time! I just got back from the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal which was awesome and had all kinds of different types of music and artists. There must have been 200,000 people out there on the streets tonight. I met some really cool dudes at the hostel who were from Paris but live here in Montreal and cruised around with them to check out the festival. Just got back home now and I think I might finally get a full night's sleep :)
I'll hopefully be able to post again soon. We love seeing comments on here and knowing that people are reading these :) Much love.
-David
Thursday, June 28, 2012
"Wild" Horses leaving Glacier National Park
When we were leaving Glacier National Park we encountered this herd of horses on the road. Some of them had brands but they were just hanging out in the road so we thought they might have escaped or been let free. I heard the last wild horses in America are in Montana too. No idea, but it was amazing driving by them and seeing their beauty. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.
Hailstorm at Klamath Lake in Oregon
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