A morning run down Haruru falls in New Zealand.
Losing Time
I woke up today with the sound of the running river and the birds chirping.
It’s Sunday, or at least I think it is.
The gift of “losing time” is spectacular. It took me two months to get lost, I am finding it difficult to imagine the idea of going back.
Kids never know what day it is, even before we started the trip, on weekends our daughter would ask “is it a school day”, and then she would ask me the same question 2-3 more times throughout the day.
Now I ask the same question, and yes, sometimes more than once.
The ancients and the beginning of time
One of the blessings of global travel is the chance to step back into history.
When I was at the UBUD Readers and Writers Festival I spent 4 days immersed in Aussie, New Zealand and Indonesian history. I even went to see several documentaries, one of these was about the first nomadic population of humans to enter Australia. Now of course we refer to them as Aborigines.
This group of clandestine travelers were the first ever to cross from land over water without any notion of a land mass on the other side.
But as luck would have it, there was, and it was Australia.
Thinking about what Australia must have been like prior to human inhabitants is fascinating, not to mention what it must of have been like to encounter giant birds, huge car size lizards, and curious hopping two-legged creatures.
These nomads lived a lifestyle that we in the modern age have been trying hard to replicate. Not the cold climate, lack of clothing, food and shelter. I will take 2014 thank you very much, but the timelessness, the community and the idea of freedom.
Modernity is not always prosperity
Sitting here riverside, in the middle of the Northern Island of NZ in the town of Paihia, I have time to take a deep breath, step away from the crowds and markets of Kuta Beach in Bali, and remember what it feels like to be timeless.
Not timeless in the sense of “I am not going to die”, but timeless in the sense of “What day is it”?
Time tracking helps us to make appointments and to create a sense of organization around life, but the constant organization, alarms, appointments, meetings, calendars it is not my idea of freedom.
Is it anybody’s?
In 2014 it is a luxury to be timeless, which is interesting, since almost everything we do, invent and purchase is marketed as a means to give us more time.
And although we have it, we don’t have the luxury to lose track of it, which begs the question, is modernity really the truest path to prosperity.
Jump into the Gap
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" - Henry David Thoreau
I have been enjoying all the post on this website. This has been my favorite! Thanks for the reminder about time and the dangerous trap it can get is stuck in.
Thanks Dom, I have been enjoying all your comments and this may also have been my favorite as well :-). The best part about being in New Zealand is the natural beauty, it’s hard not to feel more in tune with life when surrounded by sheep, rolling hills, waves and the afternoon sunshine.
My dad pointed out that life was hard 40,000 years ago and he is right, there are a lot of benefits to living in the modern age. But sometimes I wonder, even if your purpose in life is survival (versus modern mans focus on personal happiness) is this all that bad. I guess there is more anxiety when you are faced with famine, the need for water and shelter… I guess it is better in 2014, but I just wish the industrial age had created shorter workweeks, a world with less injustice and more peace along with economic prosperity.
It will be hard to get back to work and a regular schedule, but I took a year off and traveled the U.S. and it was surprisingly easy to get back to work after taking a year off. I don’t think I could do it now after not being on a schedule since I was 56. But to tell you the truth from 56 until the time we went to Europe, I always felt I was a lose ends.
For those aborigines, they were not free. They spent all their time trying to figure out where their next meal was coming from and preparing it when they had it. No canned foods or McDonald’s for the occasional going out to eat. I also know that when I was in Outward Bound and spent 3 days on an island by myself, that there was a lot of dead time and I got bored. But then I just decided not to eat because I was too lazy to fish and knew I cold go three days without eating. Atll that was important was fresh water.
But the mosquitoes were terrible and almost drove me crazy at night. No mosquito netting Forty mosquito bites on my hands the next morning.
Everything is relative of course and for those primitive people it was just their way of life. But it’s sure one I wouldn’t want to live and I guess you said the same thing. I do not believe there is anything we can call perfect freedom. It’s a myth. We always have responsibilities if not to other, to ourselves. That’s why I walk and lift weights etc.
Anyway, your post was thought provoking.
Dad
You have a valid point, I like how you used an anecdote to make your point 🙂
I was just responding to Domenick’s comment and referencing the point you made. It is true, survival is difficult. But then again you were living like a modern man as well as you were “on an island by yourself” and maybe this is what is the greatest problem with modernity. We are all on an Island by ourselves, or as one author put it we are “bowling alone”.
With the industrial age came longer work hours, a focus on prosperity through the accumulation of material things and a step away from community. Cars gave way to suburbs, families spread apart and we started to eat TV dinners.
There is a movement back to the pre-industrial age times although now we are confronted with the age of intelligent machines. How we respond to this is critical and it is a critical time in human evolution.
The Mauri’s, the Balinese, the Indigenous tribes of South Africa all have taught me something about life and about myself. What is this? I am not quite sure just yet. Maybe it is something you never lost?
I think for myself it was lost slowly over the last 10 years, when I exchanged my purpose (providing healthcare for the poor) for financial well being, a mortgage and the “American dream”. It wasn’t just the 2007 economic crash that woke me up, I knew something was missing. Now on this trip, my purpose has shifted, (creating, writing, learning about the world and different cultures, sharing this through the written word, helping people find a career as a PA, helping people get lead healthier more balanced lives through the 4 Hour Workweek/Body) but I think my God given purpose is still the same, to make the world a better place by providing healthcare for the poor. When I get back, this is my plan, and I feel like if I get back in line with my purpose, things will fall back into place. Or I will have to go find an island 🙂
Thanks for the comment,
Stephen