Earth Explorations

Props to REI for taking the next step and mainstreaming an anti-consumerist initiative by calling us all to give back to the land on Black Friday . And yes, I recognize the inherent commodification, them being a retail outlet and all, but I'm not an economic purist. Long time readers of my Facebook posts will know that Braiding Sweetgrass  has been an important book to me. I've spend a lot of time this past summer and fall reflecting on its many themes, one of which is reciprocity with the natural world, i.e. giving back to the Earth and all its systems because the Earth gives so much to us. Reciprocity is a particularly salient idea at this season of Thanksgiving. Before I go any further, I need to state the narrative around Thanksgiving—Pilgrims, Indians, feasts—needs to be rethought since this historical feast was clearly the exception in settler/Indigenous relationships rather than the rule. That mainstream America knows more about this exception than other Indigneou...

My storytelling tools of choice are words and photos. In the spirit of doing something I haven't tried before without concern if I'm any good at it, I branched out and made a video that is ostensibly about the field of test of my Nissan Rogue build out for camping. But in a meta kind of way the video is also about doing something and not worrying about if you are doing it right. My van life skills and my video skills will not be making me money, ever. But I enjoy trying them and I hope that in sharing them others might try the #RogueLife too. Rogue Life is about going rouge on the expectations—mostly the ones we have for ourselves—about how good we should be at something in order for that thing to have "real" value. We don't have to be good at something and others don't have to like, love, retweet, or heart what we do to justify our doing it. If in doing that thing you learned, you laughed, you stretched, you muddled, that thing has value. Enough for someone...

An entire month without a post! That doesn't mean I've not been exploring, only that I've not been writing about it. I traveled some in October, first to DC and then to California for various work related meetings. I also traveled in state to Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River reservation. When I travel for work, I rarely bring my higher end camera because I don't multi-task work and non-work things well. For good or for ill I get entirely absorbed with work and keeping track of a camera let using it requires more brain space than I have. Thus, I found myself back to where I was in terms of my exploration, using the tools that many people have to tell the story of moments captured while going about my life. No big, grand adventures involved. A couple of weeks ago I was driving back from Eagle Butte on a brilliant fall day passing by a recently hayed field. The light, the clouds, the expanse of the field called to me. I pulled off the road, whipped out my phone camera...