Strive

I try to teach my kids wrong from right and I hope someday that they will look back and see the lessons had purpose. My dad was hard on me growing up but you know what, the lessons I learned then have carried me where I am today.

Let’s talk about failure. Failure has changed in our society today. Failure builds character and it also teaches determination. If you try to do something and you can't do it or do it you have failed- plain and simple. At the point of failure is where you make the decision of “that’s it” or “do I try again”. If you're passionate about something or it’s something really really important you try again. You've heard if first you don't secede try try again.

In today's world things have changed. It’s unfair or cruel for someone to fail. Now they start young as well; in sports as young as preschool, everyone gets a trophy, in some sports they don’t keep score. We are training kids to grow into adults who don’t strive to be the best you can be, just be as good as everyone else. There is no incentive to be number one. If you’re number one or you always come out on top you're a showboat or something of that nature. They are trying to teach no one is better than anyone else. In human terms this is true. We are equal. Your race, religion, or political affiliation doesn't make you better or worse than anyone else- your passion does.

So while we should give everyone equal treatment based on those things, it should stop there. We are not all equal. Would you want me doing brain surgery on you? I think not! You’d want the best there was. You want your car fixed by an average guy or the guy who is proud of his work and strives to do a good job? Do you want your food cooked by someone who doesn't care or would you rather have a meal fixed by a chef who has strived to be the best?

The problem here is we have condemned competition and excellence as the root of the problem for discriminating against someone. This couldn't be further from the truth. We are all excellent human beings with things we excel in and things we fail in. We are not designed to all be the same; some people are faster, some are stronger, and some are smarter. It doesn't make you less of a person when someone else succeeds and you don't, it makes them better at that one thing. The problem is that people focus on that one thing. We are not the things we do, or the cars we drive or the places we live. We are intricate beautiful human beings with more facets than the most beautiful diamonds.

So break out of the cookie cutter world and try not to be the same as everyone else. Strive for excellence and follow your passions and if you fail, try try again. You’ll find your niche, that thing you're amazing at then do it  better than anyone else.

Hawk

Your Path

Whose Path are you on?   

When asked this question most people’s automatic response is their own. They make their own decisions and choices in life. Most of the time, by the time we hit our teenage years we proudly proclaim “I don’t need anyone else, I can do it on my own.” Some even take it as a sign weakness to need help. That is for another blog, for this one we’ll stick with the Path.

So let’s take a look at Paths and how we get here. It’s a safe bet that most everything you know was told or shown to you by someone else, very little is left to self-discovery. Now I’m not saying every facet of your life is controlled but a large portion is.

The general consensus is that you’re born and then after a normal time frame of maternity leave you are sent to a sitter or a day care. This begins the training of “you’re just a number”. From there you go to; preschool to kindergarten to middle school to to high school to college and then to work. Most people have little choice in this outline. While some of the specifics may differ, this is the general guide. At this point you would think your choices may become your own….Not really there are options but even those are pretty much predetermined.

Let’s dissect one. Let us assume that you were born into a lower-middle class or upper-lower class household. (This in and of itself is confusing, because depending on who’s labeling depends on where you are.) 59 % (2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics) of families with children are 2 income families( which mean both parents work). So you fell into the daycare to kindergarten to school route. This means you are taught and guided by people who may or may not have the same beliefs as your family.  You have been given a number by which you are identified in a large number of systems. To track you in everything you do from education, employment, health and general interest.  You will most likely attend a school to get a job, to make money to pay for your schooling, then later to pay for transportation to your job and a home. There you will strive to raise a family and set a Path for your offspring who will follow the same cycle.

While there are variations the basics are the same. You’re taught early that to “be somebody” you have to follow this pattern. Who set this pattern up? Does everyone in the world have the same pattern? No! There are exceptions. The easiest way to start to figuring this out is to follow the money. While I’m not going to point to some world enslavement conspiracy, you are being guided, directed, and molded. Most of the time it is so someone else can profit from your Path and who you have become.

Soda is cheaper than milk or bottled water? Junk food is cheaper than organic fruits and vegetables.  The corporate machine makes it harder or more expensive to do it on your own. While it would take several books to untangle the interweaving of this web, look at who gains. Natural remedies are looked down upon or even shunned by the masses but all medicines got their start there.  Being completely off the electrical grid in some places is illegal and collecting rain water a violation. Even feeding the homeless without a permit can get you a fine!

Whose Path are You on?  Any navigation class will teach you that to get to where you want to be, you must first know where you are. Have you ever given any thought on where you are in your life? Where is your Path leading you? Has it lead you to be the person you want to be? Are you where you want to be? You've been led astray. Stop following the herd and cut your own Path…

GO Tribal!

Tribal Hawk

©2015

“GO TRIBAL”

Just what is all this Tribal talk about?

Apocalypse Tribes, New Earth Tribes, Neo-Tribes and Spiritual Tribes: It started out with people who were deemed fringe groups yet now it’s becoming mainstream.

Webster defines tribe as

1a: a social group comprising numerous families, clans, or generations together with slaves, dependents, or adopted strangers

2: a group of persons having a common character, occupation, or interest

Tribalism as

1: Tribal consciousness and loyalty; especially: exaltation of the tribe above other groups

2: strong in-group loyalty

There are many uses on the term tribal in the context of things people are into today, neo tribalism, post modern tribalism, new earth tribes, burning man tribe and others. Tribal to some people mean native or indigenous tribes, you don’t have to be of a certain race or belief to be in a post modern tribe. Post modern Tribes form for many reasons mostly because the family unit has disappeared and a form of group bonding is longed for.

We feel something is missing. Something is missing, the world is not right. Humans are the only living thing that pays to live on earth. Think about that for a minute, most living things except humans are born, raised by a parent or parents, reach adulthood provide for themselves, procreate, then die. Now while I realize there are some variations on this and the speed at which you get from step one to the last step greatly varies. The basics are the same.

Humans are born, given a number as well as a name and cataloged into a big system, where we are expected to go to school to get a job so we can “PAY” for food, shelter, and clothing and to save money so we can pay someone to take care of us when we can no longer do it ourselves. WHAT? Where is the living part? Where is the freedom? Oh I have it as long as it fits into the confines of the system?

But the system is broken. Societies have risen and fallen since the dawn of time. Look around at the fallen empires of old, look around today, this isn’t working.  We have gotten too far away from that which sustains us, too far away from nature and each other. Most of us have no clue where our food and water comes from, much less what’s in it. People have lost the ability to take care of themselves. We have to “work” to make money to pay for things we can’t do ourselves. Now I’m not against working, In fact working in our garden is fun to me. I’m against a system so far removed from the earth and spirit, that it exploits us and the earth only to sustain itself.  The only way the big machine has any hopes of continuing is if you are too busy or distracted to see you are just a number, just a cog. The system is designed to keep the masses busy and if you’re not busy enough then it keeps you distracted.

Tribal Structures are working though. There are remote tribes still in existence today that prove this as well as the new tribes that are forming. The tribal community, which I’m looking to foster see’s each person as a unique and wonderful being. Where we are in touch with nature and are striving to become self reliant.  Learning and relearning skills such as gardening, wild crafting, holistic medicines and others. To work with nature and not against it, to take care of Mother Earth and not exploit her. To live as we are all apart of each other and connect with the spiritual side of life as well. To have fun and experience life outside of someone else’s box.

Look at any tribal system outside of human ones, they work, live, laugh and mourn together. They aren’t just in touch with nature they are a part of it! It’s a system that works.

I wanna “GO TRIBAL”

Tribal Hawk ©2010

Then and Now

I have been doing a lot of thinking about then and now. The time span between then and now really doesn't have to be that big to see drastic differences. Modern technology alone is hard to keep up with. Twenty years ago not everyone had a home computer, now your phone is one. Not that long ago your phone was attached by a cord. Not that long ago, I didn't know every move a friend made. Now they post it on walls for the world to read.

The thing is, something has gone wrong. I grew up watching the Jetsons and other science fiction like many of my generation. This is not how it was supposed to turn out. I remember watching people placing a little pill on a plate, putting it in a box, pushing a button and voila you had a steaming hot delicious meal. Now it is cheap microwave meals. You put in a box push a button and tada you have a steaming hot mess of stuff my dog wouldn't eat. The list of chemicals and preservatives out number the real food stuff in there.

Communication was push a button on your wristwatch and poof there is your friend all smiling and happy. Now it’s video messaging from your phone or texting and people walking around like zombies staring at their phones.

Robots were running around helping humans building and cleaning. Everyone had all this free time to do fun stuff and enjoy themselves. Now we have robots working on assembly lines making stuff. They are even putting kiosk in fast food restaurants to replace people taking your order and people out of work wishing they had a job. No money to do those happy things.

If you go back even further you see a family sailing to a new country to make a life for themselves. They had to find some land build a home, grow their food, farm the land, hunt and fish and garden. Sure times were hard but they did it and lots of them flourished.

Somewhere along the way a lot of  the things that were supposed to make life better, just don’t. Those things took over their lives. People have lost sight of the basics. You don’t have to gather water or food or build your home. You don’t have to learn to fix things. Everything is disposable- so much so people treat other people as disposable. Got a problem with someone, unfriend them. Hell ten years ago that wasn't even a thing “unfriending”.

Now we throw away everything that no longer works or serves its purpose even people. People have lost value. No one fixes things, no one works at it; much easier to discard it and throw it out, get a new one a better one. Yet as each year that passes the number of unhappy people increases. The numbers of people who do terrible things to themselves and each other increases. If someone had told me 30 years ago there would be a heroin problem with teens in my area I would have thought they were crazy, but you know what we have that problem.

People just try to numb it all down. We are overwhelmed by constant tv, radio, computers and cellphones. Always connected and people just try to numb it all. They drink, do drugs and treat people like crap because they are numb. The world which wants to sustain itself also caters to this.  Got a crappy life? Watch this person's drama unfold and feel better. Watch this ball game and forget about how crappy it all is. It’s like a perpetual motion machine the worse you feel the more you participate in. The more you participate in it, the more money someone else makes. We get so lost in the machine that we lose who we are.

Who grew up wanting to spend all day in a cube or working at a job to pay for apartments and houses and cars that we never get to use cause we work all the time? No one! Most of us had dreams of doing this or that grand thing. Then we went to schools and they fit us all into neat little boxes so we’d fit in the machine.

We are taught to do this it makes things so much easier and use this it saves time. Yet all the while having less and less time, getting deeper and deeper into the machine. We are taught to hate, to be scared and to follow along with the program.

Sometimes the program breaks and when it does there are those whom are so deep in the machine they can’t function. What you mean no food in the stores? What do you mean electricity maybe out 5 days? No water for a week!

Somebody needs to fix it. To take care of it. They are part of the machine that feeds on the people who make it run.

There is hope. There are those people, those outcast, those who are called crazy by the machine. Those whom are labeled dangerous because they question, They don’t follow blindly.  Most of the time some event has awaken them. Others were lucky enough to have had parents that taught them the dangers of handing it all over to the machine. They are your homesteaders ,preppers, survivalist and tribalist , they are rewilders, primitives,and rainbow warriors. They are the ones who will actually look you in the eye.

They are the ones who take care of themselves and their families. They form Tribes that are as strong as any blood bond. They work outside of the machine helping each other freely. Their mottos differ in wording but in the end they all are the same “we take care of our own”  and they do.

The machine no matter how deeply your ingrained to it will at some point let you down. You need to know how to take care of your own……..

Tribal Hawk