Stress? What Stress!
Nov. 16th, 2015 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anigoThis weekend we went to my husband's family's hunting camp to cut next year's firewood. This might sound a bit archaic, and in fact it is a bit, but we have a wood stove, and my in-laws have something like a billion acres of land out in the middle of nowhere and firewood right now is $400 a cord, and, well, both my husband and I are of sound mind and body (ok, sound mind is a bit of a stretch) so every year we (actually, most of the time it's he, but this time it was we) go to the "camp" to cut wood so we can have the fabulous heat and atmosphere that comes with a nice, wood fire at the cost of gas to get there and a bit of sweat that we both can stand to lose.
When I say his camp is in the middle of nowhere, I ain't kidding. To get there you take the highway out of the city for about half an hour. Then you turn right. You drive on one secondary road or another for another half hour. Then you turn left onto a dirt road. You take that dirt road for about 10 minutes. Then you turn right onto another dirt road for another 10 minutes. And there you are. (Click the link to see that when I say it's in the middle of nowhere, I'm not kidding.)
It's in the middle of a bunch of crown land, and crown land tends to equal clear cutting for pulp and paper, but despite the scars from the satellite pic, believe me when I say there's just a lot of trees. No electricity. No plumbing. No nothing. Just birds and trees and wind. (And deer and bear and stuff like that)
So I went back to the camp to grab a sandwich while Dickie finished cutting some wood and I sat in a chair and closed my eyes and listened to the fire crackle and the wind blow (and Dickie's chain saw off in the distance.) I had my cell phone with 2 bars of service, but aside from that, there's nothing that links you with the rest of the world.
And I thought 100 years ago this was life. If there was a shooting in Paris we weren't watching people running from buildings, blood streaming from their faces, as the shootings happened. We weren't hearing hundreds and hundreds of stories and opinions within the first two hours of the event. You wouldn't be constantly in touch with the babble of EVERYBODY through things like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and... well, even here.
To be clear, you'd probably be working sun up to sun down. You'd be washing your clothes with a crank machine and doing a lot of walking or tending to the horses. (Ok, humour me, my dates might be off a bit, but you get the picture. And I know not everybody worked on a farm or in the woods, but even if you were in the heart of the city, there is only so much information you're going to get within a 24 hour period.) You'd be working a LOT harder than you are now physically, but when you were done, and you'd read the newspaper or listened to the news on the radio, you were done.
We just have SO much to process now.
It's no wonder the use of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds is on the rise.
How else are you supposed to process.
It will be interesting to see how our body and psyche evolves to adapt to this change in our landscape.
When I say his camp is in the middle of nowhere, I ain't kidding. To get there you take the highway out of the city for about half an hour. Then you turn right. You drive on one secondary road or another for another half hour. Then you turn left onto a dirt road. You take that dirt road for about 10 minutes. Then you turn right onto another dirt road for another 10 minutes. And there you are. (Click the link to see that when I say it's in the middle of nowhere, I'm not kidding.)
It's in the middle of a bunch of crown land, and crown land tends to equal clear cutting for pulp and paper, but despite the scars from the satellite pic, believe me when I say there's just a lot of trees. No electricity. No plumbing. No nothing. Just birds and trees and wind. (And deer and bear and stuff like that)
So I went back to the camp to grab a sandwich while Dickie finished cutting some wood and I sat in a chair and closed my eyes and listened to the fire crackle and the wind blow (and Dickie's chain saw off in the distance.) I had my cell phone with 2 bars of service, but aside from that, there's nothing that links you with the rest of the world.
And I thought 100 years ago this was life. If there was a shooting in Paris we weren't watching people running from buildings, blood streaming from their faces, as the shootings happened. We weren't hearing hundreds and hundreds of stories and opinions within the first two hours of the event. You wouldn't be constantly in touch with the babble of EVERYBODY through things like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and... well, even here.
To be clear, you'd probably be working sun up to sun down. You'd be washing your clothes with a crank machine and doing a lot of walking or tending to the horses. (Ok, humour me, my dates might be off a bit, but you get the picture. And I know not everybody worked on a farm or in the woods, but even if you were in the heart of the city, there is only so much information you're going to get within a 24 hour period.) You'd be working a LOT harder than you are now physically, but when you were done, and you'd read the newspaper or listened to the news on the radio, you were done.
We just have SO much to process now.
It's no wonder the use of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds is on the rise.
How else are you supposed to process.
It will be interesting to see how our body and psyche evolves to adapt to this change in our landscape.
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no subject
Date: 2015-11-16 07:23 pm (UTC)Every year since 1980 I have gone up into a region similar to that on your map to cut a Christmas tree. It isn't that far as the crow flies, but if the crow is driving, it takes a rather long time. And halfway there I can look out and see literally hundreds of miles where no one lives at all.
I have usually done this on Black Friday, and I think how odd it is that there are people falling over themselves to buy a Tickle Me Elmo in a artificially lighted mall, while I sit out here and hear complete silence except for the wind.
My parents grew up exactly the way you described, and to a lesser extent so did I, so I know whereof you speak.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-16 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-16 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-11-16 10:06 pm (UTC)Although, come to think of it, I might need it. My writing often needs quite a bit of research work.
But otherwise, I'd get a ton of writing done.
no subject
Date: 2015-11-17 01:45 am (UTC)I grew up in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain. It was beautiful! My aunt and uncle just got almost acceptable cell service where they live (at the top of the mountain). Some days I miss it, but then I remember the 15 mile drive to the grocery store and realize how much I don't miss it lol