Since 1993, I have been fortunate enough to spend roughly half my working days hiking through the swamps and forests of coastal South Carolina, usually alone for eight hours a day, sometimes for days on end.
I refer to these “field days” as my “serenity” workouts.
The other half of my working days over this period of time have been in countless office settings, racing around in the increasingly breathtaking pace of the “hyper-connected” mainstream business world, with the glowing electronic gizmos and other technological comforts we have become so enamored with……which are supposedly “improving” our “productivity”.
By making us think and act like machines.
Anyway, so many days I work in both “worlds” ….several times each.
The irony is, I am usually bone tired at the end of my 8 hour field days, but it is a “good” tired……..unlike the ” bad” tired I feel after sitting at a computer for 8 hours in an office, or racing around in my car yammering and texting on my cell all day.
And I really hate texting.
Over time, the litany of contrasts I witnessed between working in these two “worlds” – became startling to me.
So I started opening my eyes even wider, and began looking around at the larger way most of us live our lives in “advanced” societies.
The upshot of “my story” is this:
My work experience has led me to a unique vantage point from which to observe our mainstream physical and cultural evolution in the United States………an “outside-in” perspective.
At the risk of sounding pretentious – alright, I will be pretentious…I feel this experience has given me a certain “clarity”. I am certainly no “sage” – as I still have NO IDEA why we are here – but I’ve definitely stumbled upon a simple gut feeling I cannot shake.
A good old-fashioned average-guy “epiphany”, if you will.
Actually, this is a “clarity” which is readily available to anyone who possesses a curious mind, and is lucky enough to be having, or to have had, the same type of “two world” experience as me.
From this vantage point……my mind, body, and soul are elbowing me hard right now …THERE’S SOMETHING DISTURBING ABOUT HOW WE ARE EVOLVING IN ADVANCED SOCIETIES.
Somewhere along the line, something has gone profoundly WRONG.
We have hit the proverbial “wall”.
For instance, is it really worth risking death in a head-on car collison, to text back to your wife that you will not forget to stop and pick-up the 2 loaves of bread?
Furthermore, this “Thoreauvian” experience has also led me to conclude that there are so many other minds out there far superior to mine – who simply CANNOT find the time and/or solitude to truly “THINK” anymore about the “bigger pictures” we are now drawing as a species.
In the midst of the “Information Age” ironically, with more information at our fingertips than ever, these people cannot think “outside the box”……because they don’t realize they LIVE “inside a box”.
This human tragedy continues with not only “no end in sight”, but with a exponential increase in human tragedy staring at us.
Please understand the primary objective of GOING PRIMAL is not to dictate to anyone living in an advanced society how to live – or to provide some New Age snake oil that will give you eternal bliss.
Going Primal does not pretend to “have it all figured out”.
But it is meant to get your attention, as it strives to “figure it all out”.
And maybe even offend you a bit. Without apology.
All the GOING PRIMAL movement asks is that you first simply put down your I-Phone for longer periods of time, make some solid eye-contact with your fellow species, open your mind, walk outside for no reason at all, and then begin to EMBRACE your primal nature.
And see for yourself where the journey takes you.
Personally, I know where it took me so far.
And I can see where it’s taking me next.
It’s not Utopia.
But the reality is that “the “system” we have created for ourselves to live in is no longer significantly rooted in Nature, and therefore it represents a dangerously FALSE path forward.
Make no mistake, this path we have been on so far has been an incredibly useful one. It got us to “here” – which is arguably the best place we have ever been.
However, as of late, our path has degenerated into a route that continues to disconnect us further from the things that matter most, while connecting us to many of the things that matter the least.
Now we stand bone tired and stressed…and losing day light fast.
We have become lost in the woods.
But if there exists a different path forward for our species – is it WORTH exploring?
Going Primal thinks so.
And my instincts tell me that are plenty of you out there feeling what I am feeling, too.
So please gather round for a moment, drop your back-pack, and share YOUR thoughts, observations, and hard earned wisdom around this electronic “camp fire” known as goingprimal.com – located ironically out here in the “cyber wilderness” of the 21st century.
Then let’s turn off our computers, and go hike the new way forward…..
“My story” is dedicated to my Mom and Dad back in our beloved small sea-side town – and their unconditional love.
