I enjoy the benefits of the modern age. I like air conditioning in summer. I like hot water on command. I enjoy regular showers, clean clothes, and overall good physical health with minimal or no major diseases.
And yet, I often find myself ill at ease in the modern age.
Everything moves so incredibly fast. I am constant caught up in a turbulent cycle of news and action. Things always demand my attention. Technology seems just on the precipice of overwhelming me. And too often I am either thrust into a mass of people whom I bump up against like marbles in a bag or utterly abandoned.
And, of course, the knowledge I care for - history, literature, language, philosophy, theology, even agriculture- is largely relegated to the fringes of society as so much of it is seen as not as useful as technical skills.
I keep feeling like - at least mentally and emotionally - I belong in another age.
That does not really help anything of course, as I am sort of stuck in the age I am in. It is not like I have a time machine or something (and even then, I cannot really see that going well for me).
The next question became "Could I live as if I did live in another age?"
Apparently this may or may not be a thing - whether it be Viking re-enactors (see the videos if you can - some amazing craftsmanship and battles!) or something called "Retroculture" of which I am not sure how much of a thing it is or not - the premise being you choose a period and live in it as much as possible.
I do not know quite what to do with this concept. In theory I like it - but how does it work out practically? It is not as if I can abandon my computer at work or (realistically) dump my cell phone. But there are things I can do - attitude, manners, language, even dress - to maybe move myself a bit down that path.
No big commitments or changes yet - but something I am definitely pondering. After all, what do I have to lose?
Some of the black powder geeks I know will disappear on the odd weekend and just go camp out in the woods with their period correct guns and gear - just to get away. When they come back they note things that worked (or didn’t), and make changes to their equipment and accoutrements accordingly. During the week they make Everything they need with their own hands the way the mountain men did.
ReplyDeleteI used to look at those weirdos and beardos like they were loons playing ‘dress up’ ... but in recreating the way their ancestors lived, they seem to rejuvenate themselves and draw energy from it.
TB, you strike me as a driven and focused man. Do you ever do anything that is pointless and useless.. but fun all the same? As a kid I could do it all the time. As anold fart... it takes real effort but can still be done.
I say, go for it. Dan and I are trying to live in a different age ourselves, though I don't feel we're very successful at it. Our preference is a rural agrarian age, a rural agrarian community, and a rural agrarian economy. Kind of hard to do by ourselves, but if you can find some like minds it may be very fulfilling.
ReplyDeleteGlen, the modern Viking fascinates me for the same reason. Some of the videos and pictures I have seen are amazing. And yes, perhaps at one time the whole "dressing up" thing seemed silly to me as well - but the longer I live, the more I feel that most of modern life is a sort of sham, that we live out roles that are largely dependent on others although we hold this illusion of "independence" and "our way".
ReplyDeleteDriven? Perhaps? Or maybe just always concerned I am missing what I am supposed to be doing.
Leigh, what you and Dan are doing is amazing! In terms of support, I do not think I will find much, if any - but that is okay. Ultimately I am responsible for myself, not them.
ReplyDeletei hate to think of the diseases, especially in the heat of august, that our ancestors either lived through or succumbed to.
ReplyDeletedo not want to live without sewerage treatment or water collection, treatment and delivery
'
we really need to see what remedies our forebears used for disease and setting broken bones
scary to think of yet necessary to think of.
And no air conditioning Deb - did I mention no air conditioning?
ReplyDeleteAll of the things you mention are exactly true - and we take so much of it for granted.
More and more, just from practical necessity of an overloaded system, we need to consider cures of old. Better to be able to treat something while having modern drugs than have no idea how to treat it at all.