(“On My Own Time” is an Art and Literary competition swponsored by business across north Texas through the North Texas Business Council for the Arts.)

Living Rough

By Michael Morgan

All rights Reserved     

      

“North America in 1830 was an environment that presented those on the frontier with challenges on a daily basis that would kill most of us today within a week. The man of yesteryear was geared mentally to living in the wilderness. He intended to live in the wilderness, not escape from it. Most of us today think only in terms of survival, staying alive until we are rescued. It makes far more sense to be able to live in some degree of comfort and security and to be able to contribute to the determination of your own fate, rather than to sit around waiting for the Coleman stove to run out of fuel.” ~ Bill Bagwell paraphrased from “The Shooting Bag” in Guns & Ammo Nov.1985

            Before I read Mr. Bagwell’s article, I had never really thought about how much a slight difference in mindset could change a person. It definitely changed the way I thought about my outdoor experience and the training I had received up to that point. It shaped the way I have approached my own life, and the things I have taught my daughter.

            My early camping experiences had always been very temporary in nature with a fixed beginning and end to the event. We took what we would need, making sure to check the  list full of must-have items twice before setting out. Later, as a Boy Scout, we camped in defined blocks of time, and we still had the logistics firmly in place. When I earned the Wilderness Survival and Emergency Preparedness Merit Badges, the training was framed in the context of a short-lived event that had not quite managed to kill us. We only had to struggle on long enough for Mr. Roger’s legendary “Helpers” to come to the rescue.

            What happens when a given situation has no end point in sight? How does one act when “normal” is uncertain, or changed entirely? Most of the answer is between the ears.

            The mind is the most critical resource we have as human beings. We know things. We can apply that knowledge creatively. We can discover new things. We can be mentally present, and engage with our world, or we can retreat from our world and allow events to overwhelm us while we sit in the dark waiting for the Helpers to arrive.

            A survivor is a half-dead person fortunate to be still walking around. Mental Health professionals talk about PTSD and the trauma of the frail unfortunate person. Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, David Crockett, and the millions of aboriginal people who went before us would laugh their collective backsides off if they could overcome their astonishment at our foolishness.

            The people who opened the American frontier faced famine, disease, and backbreaking labor as a matter of course in daily life. This does not include violent encounters with Native populations rightfully contesting the European invasion.

 “Long Hunters” would often be gone for weeks or months at a time, traveling the wilderness, before returning to the settlements with salted meat and hides to trade. These men survived the experience not through blind luck, but because this was intentional behavior. This created a calm mindfulness that allowed them to apply their intellects to the work of that occupation.

            “I ain’t never been lost. Fearsome confused for a month or two, but I ain’t never been lost.” ~ Brian Keith as Henry Frapp in The Mountain Men

            In the current era, much can be learned from people “living rough” (aka Homeless). Regardless of the reason a person lives on the street, theirs is a life driven by an attitude of acceptance and persistence. They go through their day focused on staying warm, dry, hydrated, and fed. The cause of their circumstances is really unimportant. It is their adaptation to their  version of normal. The key to staying alive is accepting what is, then actively thinking about how to best respond to the challenges of the day.

            Scary pandemics, unemployment, financial disaster, house fire, car broken down in the middle of nowhere. I’m here. These are my circumstances. What am I going to do about it?

Note the “am” in that question. Most people think in terms of “What can I do about it?” This is an unempowering mindset. It allows for the easy answer of “There’s nothing I can do, but wait for Helpers to come make things right.” By taking the AM approach, you start thinking of resources, options, possibilities. Changing one little word makes you “contribute to the determination of your own fate, rather than waiting for the Coleman stove to run out of fuel.” It is empowering because it denies the passive mindset and demands action.

The top shelf of three closets in my Grandmother’s house was always stuffed with toilet paper. The two deep freezer units were always full of produce from Grandma’s extensive Victory Garden. I never understood this as a small child, but I never questioned it until I was older and realized my grandparents and great-grandparents had been through World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. They knew the modern reality of scarcity and uncertainty. They were not survivalists or preppers. They knew from experience what could happen and stockpiled those things likely to be difficult to get. I don’t recall hearing stories of any family members suffering serious privation during these periods. It could be due to accepting the terms of life, and actively living through the challenges that come along instead of just surviving.

An excellent illustration of this comes from “Mrs. Jorgensen” played by Olive Carey in The Searchers: “It just so happens we be Texicans. Texican is nothing but a human man way out on a limb. This year and next, and maybe for a hundred more. But I don’t think it’ll be forever. Someday this country’s gonna be a fine, good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.”