I was talking with a friend over dinner last night about Death Valley (she’s leaving for a trip there soon) and this reminded me of the fact that I was supposed to do a few more posts on my recent “off-planet” trip to the same place. So here goes:
Why Do I Need All That Other Stuff Day.
Right now you’re thinking, “Why do I need all that other stuff?”. It’s the feeling you get (for a while) when you’re out in the desert, just you and the tent, and the stuff on the picnic table. You’re cooking asparagus to go with your red pepper and avocado salad, to have as a side with your delicious stewed chicken (with a bit of red wine in the sauce) on a bed of couscous. You’re feeling content with the world (the sandstorm of the night before that filled every crevice with sand while you were trying to put up your tent in the middle of it is just a distant memory), and the sun will soon set, beautifully, behind the mountains to the West.
Ahead of you to come that evening is some quality thinking on a full belly, some dozing by a crackling campfire, the murmur of other campers in the (you hope) distance, the small chunk of dark chocolate you’ll break off the bar you brought…. and that single slow-burning shot of the 15 year old Dalwhinnie that you always treat yourself to later in the tent when on a camping trip, before eventually blowing out the candle lamp and sleeping.
The “other stuff” refers to all the trappings of everyday existence of your regular life…. You know: A house. A house full of stuff. Yep, Stuff. Stuff you mostly don’t use every day. Stuff you collect on trips and bring back and that just sits there. Stuff you can’t throw away. How many chairs and tables and knives and forks and pots and pans and cups and saucers and shoes and socks and pants and shirts and bedrooms and bathrooms and back issues of the New Yorker does one really need?
You’re thinking that the stuff we surround ourselves with on a day to day basis seems so… superfluous -at least for a while- at times like this when you’re managing a few days on a cute little camping stove, two cooking pans, some bowls, a big sharp knife, a cosy tent, some good hiking boots…..
Another sandstorm will come the next day, followed by some rain, and then you’ll think of your garden at home, and how your stuff at home is all dry and sand-free ….. and you’ll snap right back to your senses.
Happy Why Do I Need All That Other Stuff Day*.
-cvj
(*Apologies to Girls Are Pretty.)
April 7th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
I love camping as long as it comes with hot showers….
April 7th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
I consider staying at a Holiday Inn as camping out…And I was in Death Valley a couple years ago and thought the motel definitely ranked as camping out.
After being in India (marvelous country that it is) for 3 weeks, I am blissful to be back with my stuff and my food and my wine. It’s all what you’re used to.
April 8th, 2006 at 2:40 am
I wish I could do something like that.
How did you get all that gourmet food into the desert? do you have a refrigerator in your car?
April 8th, 2006 at 2:46 am
No. It all keeps pretty well in paper Trader Joe’s bags! Vegetables, fruits, dried stuff like couscous, etc….. I have a tiny cooler with ice on the bottom for the (pre-cooked) meat, and some milk for Irish Oatmeal in the mornings, and that’s it. If staying for more than a day or two, you can get more ice at gas stations or stores.
-cvj
April 8th, 2006 at 3:58 am
Going camping out with a car? I thought I read about hiking boots. Well I can tend to be rather extrem …
I should do that more often ..
Enjoy your times camping out
Cheers,
Helge
April 8th, 2006 at 4:41 am
I am with donna. Hot water at least one time per week is civilisation. Higienic, too.
April 8th, 2006 at 5:30 am
Because both umbrellas and tents equally serve as primitive forms of shelter, I vaguely see the connection between Clifford’s post and the “girls are pretty” post. Nevertheless, subtle differences emerge between Clifford’s post and the “girls are pretty” post. Firstly, Clifford is not content to sleep inside his primitive tent during bad weather. In contrast, the cabby is content with using his primitive umbrella during rainy weather. In other words, while Clifford desires the more complex shelter of his house, the cabby is content with the primitive shelter of his umbrella. Furthermore, the cabby customer “snapped right back to his senses” when he realized that umbrellas have no other advanced purpose. In contrast to the cabby customer, Clifford “snapped right back to his senses” when he realized that more complex forms of tents – such as houses – do have an advanced purpose. Clifford: by juxtaposing the “girls are pretty” post upon your post, your thoughts on shelter are most cleverly revealed. Does anyone else have a different way of explaining the juxtaposition of these two seemingly disconnected posts?
April 8th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Lot to be said for spending part of the year in a “summer house”. This can be very simple, really like a picnic pavilion, especially if you own enough land to build it on your property with the regular house close by.
Kinda like overnighting in a small sailboat, come to think of it.
April 8th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Hi Cynthia. Thanks….but I must say that there was no intended connection between the GAP post and mine, exceet the style it was written in. I did not even read the GAP post for that day. The point was simply the style. I did this once before, see here.
cheers,
-cvj
April 8th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Clifford, thanks for revealing my error in formulating a connection between the content of your post and the content of the GAP post. In spite of my error, I wonder how one can merely mimic a writing style without being cognizant of its content? Moreover, even if you did not examine the content of this specific GAP post, how could such “parallels in content” randomly emerge from “parallels in style”? You can not deny that there is a legitimate correlation between the “tent” and the “umbrella” as well as between “you,the camper” and “the anonymous,cabby customer”? Please enlighten me on how “parallels in content” can be completely disconnected from “parallels in style”?
April 8th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
Cynthia: – Sorry to say this, and yes some will call me rude, but you need to switch off your computer and go outside and get some sunshine, and/or fresh air. You’re over-analyzing just a touch; seeing things where there is probably nothing. As to your specific question, let me give you an example that makes it clear. If I write a Limerick, I am writing in a particluar style following a set of rules. I do not have to know anything about the actual content of any other particular Limerick to acheive something recognizable as a Limerick. Any resulting spooky parallels are just coincidences of the contraints of language, at best.
Best,
-cvj
April 10th, 2006 at 4:32 am
A man who takes Dalwhinnie camping is truly a man after my own heart:)
April 10th, 2006 at 8:47 am
Since it has been made perfectly clear that I have wrongfully invoked the spooky practice of “mining for hidden variables” in this post, I will consciously refrain from generating such “over-analytical threads” in this post and all future posts. Now with my newly constrained thoughts at hand, I will briefly present the following commentary on this post. If it were my goal to survive the aftermath of this sandstorm followed by rainstorm, I would prefer to be in a less primitive shelter.