As far as my inspirations lately, yeah, boy do I feel blessed. This kind of thing, the “long term survival” stuff, really makes me come alive. I still think about your “Bob” story a lot. As far as my inspirations, we’ll see what comes next! I have a feeling more good stuff awaits my readiness…

I’ve had several folks, decades older than me, who have declared their investment in “eldering ways”, tell me that they don’t see the value in some of these things I talk about.

This does make me think that our cultural shell game of material happiness and puritanism partially intends to make it more difficult for an adult to fully realize their adulthood.

In fact, these things almost seem to scare folks at times; as if, once they can see something clearly, then they’ll have to make a conscious choice about something painful, so why would they want to see it clearly?

All this simultaneously feeds into one’s own readiness, I agree. Like we’ve talked about before, a member of this culture needs to “hit their bottom” before they will care enough to kick their addiction to enslaved and domesticated ways of living. Maybe that signals one’s readiness for adulthood, more than anything else!!

Thanks Billy for your thoughts!

I’m finding in recent years I am coming to some understandings that I don’t think I would have been able to get when I was younger. Things that seem to require a certain level of life experience almost as a prerequisite.

In a way, I could see them as being hidden or things that nobody talks about. Sometimes I find myself trying to pass something on to a younger person in the hopes of saving them some of the trouble that I had in learning and it backfires on me. I’m sure it has a LOT to do with a lack of skill on my part, but I also think that some things will only be understood when a person has the necessary prerequisites. Our elders have found that out already, so they let things unfold in the their natural course. These things aren’t hidden from anyone who is capable of understanding them.

I have also seen something that I mentioned a while back. That some of the younger people are coming to these understandings earlier in their lives than their parents could have. Just as their parents were able to do. I was able to stand on the foundation that my mother made for me and my children have started from a place that I made for them and I can see my grandchildren already benefitting from not having to begin where my mother did.

So Willem, are you saying that you are only now able to have these understandings? That these things were never hidden but your ability to see them has just developed? That’s what has happened for me. Some of it I can look back and see that I have understood it and lived it for a long time but was just not able to articulate it. Some of it is new revelations.

Now you’ve got me thinking. We have physical technology (fire kits, traps, bow and arrow, hides), which mostly ensure short-term survival. Then we have invisible technology (clarity and commitment processes, associative thinking, storytelling), which mostly ensure long-term survival. Maybe that explains it a bit.

Anyway, yes, the “hidden-ness of the alternatives that we have”. I suppose I could’ve just said that.

I have been enjoying your work here for a few weeks or more, and have blogged about it. I really am encouraged by your endeavor to articulate these all-too-hidden aspects of maturing as individuals and groups. I enjoy being privy to your burgeoning awareness as you articulate the insights you are experiencing. I thank you.