I’ll be away from the keyboard for the next week. AFK is the shorthand if you’re immersed in a MMORPG. Which is the acronym for massively “multiplayer online role-playing game.”
The fact that I know that indicates how much I need this natural world retreat.
Once I’m out in the wild, oars in hand and nothing but time and skies and red-winged blackbirds happy for the arrival of spring and the rush of water around me, I’ll shed some of the daily tension.
I have a week long river journey ahead of me where myself and several others will be introducing a squad of the younger generation to the wonders of disconnecting and the rigors of understanding whitewater.
Disconnecting to reconnect.
The madness of the king won’t matter out in the wilderness though we will still have our phones and — I imagine — a few of us will seek a glimpse of what’s going on in the outside digital world. It’s human nature. Disconnecting is difficult.
Fortunately for us cell signals are nearly non-existent where we are going and there is certainly no wifi. You have to work to get your digital fix. Like climb a mountain or wander aimlessly in circles to try and catch the faintest of signals.
I prefer letting it all go.
Surrendering to the idea we are once again out-of-touch and on our own and as free from the shackles of our modern day obsessions as we can be. I’ve been on rivers when Ford pardoned Nixon, when our military tried to shock and awe a nation into submission and when the Clintons made it into the White House deposing the former CIA director, HW Bush, and making him one of our one-term wonders.
A lot can happen when temporarily disengaged from the march of history. Especially in the age of the world wide web and the adherents who abuse it.
There’ll be time to catch up upon my return.
Until then, hang in there. Make time for yourself and for everyone you love. I’ll be missing my wife and fur babies but I know I’ll return refreshed and feeling a little bit better about the state of things because — no matter what happens — come next Saturday there will be a group of humans experiencing ‘separation anxiety’ — which means we will have done our job.
I highly recommend The Find Out podcast which features 6 white dudes who met online during the Harris campaign and who were part of the White Dudes for Harris. They have some good energy and ideas for trials and tribulations ahead.
Check them out.
Also, here’s a photo of our dogs — the auburn one is the matriarch, the Great Dane is Marmaduke reborn — bonding. It’s not much of a photo, but this was the first time I’ve seen them together laying out in the sun. Sally, the matriarch, appears be to teaching Jaxs how to chill.
It is a lesson he badly needs.
Love being Trump free when I choose to be. Bravo on your happy place vacay!
Enjoy your vacation!