Aristocracy

I am a modern day aristocrat, an aristocrat of the 21st century. I spend my days as I please, rotating between rock climbing, kayaking, looking for jobs and socializing. My fare consists of robust ramen feasts and peanut butter platters. I am free at the drop of a hat to join you in a climbing expedition or on a jaunt out of town. If the creeks are swolen with rain I can meet you at the river in record time. I can spend most of a day idly chatting about life. My nights can drift from gathering to gathering.

I am as free as if I were a 4 year old, or the child of an industrialist with a trust fund, yet I am neither. I am a middle class American, with college debt to pay, and an education to use. But I find myself in a limbo land, a purgatory of sorts waiting to be cast into my lot. I am between those with much and with little, I am below the radar. I am floating.

Eventually I will find paying work and join my peers. I will move from the impoverished vagabond, floating with the wind, free of cares and possessions set loose by my poverty. Eventually, I will have responsibilities.

I have been told to enjoy being unemployed, that I will do, nay that I must do. Until otherwise, go see some friends, share a meal, and give someone a place on your couch, it could change your life.

Peace and Love

Mike

Road Trippin'

A few weeks ago I embarked on a road trip with 3 friends, 4 backpacks, 4 sets of climbing shoes, a malfunctioning GPS, and 2 cameras in a Mazda Protege for 3 weeks of the Southwest. We had few plans and no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but since a picture is worth a thousand words here is a slide-show worth about 7,367,000 words...


Elissa is an aspiring slide-show professional, and photographer. You can find more of her work here and here and she is starting to blog here. Leave some comments.

Special road trip thanks to Sante Fe's finest The Flying Tortilla restaurant, The Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, the Ouray Ice Festival, the US highway department, bread, peanut butter, and pesto.

More coming later

peace and love

Mike

Climbing

This year has been a big year for me in the sport of climbing. About 12 months ago I started bouldering at a gym near ARI, in March I got to go see the Bouldering World Cup in Saitama, Japan, in April I did a little climbing at Railay Beach in Thailand, in June I went bouldering at the famous Shiobara boulders near Nikko National Park, in November I led my first sport climbing routes at Reimer's Ranch in Travis county, in December I led my first trad climbing routes at Enchanted Rock SP, and last week I got to lead part of a trad route in Zion National Park before heading to the Ouray Ice Festival in Colorado where I took an ice climbing clinic and got to do some climbs in the gorge where I met Steve House a climbing legend.

I have wanted to be a good climber for a while now, it's been and off and on kind of thing throughout college. I would get really excited and climb a lot at the gym, maybe go outside a few times, get pretty strong, then stop climbing only to pick it up again from the beginning a while later.

I can give you all kinds of reasons why, but I guess I just wasn't that into it. Now though, I am not just climbing (pulling myself up a wall) but moving forward in technique and learning how to climb in the traditional sense and protecting myself as I move up the wall which makes everything a little more real. I started trying this type of climbing to improve my outdoor resume but have found that I really enjoy the challenge and the exposure. Now it is not a matter of how difficult the actual moves are, now I get to think about where I will stand to place gear, or how I can get to the next bolt on the wall. It has added a whole new dimension that forces me to climb within my limits in order to safely protect a fall.

Over the next few months I hope to do a lot more climbing and I will keep you updated on those exploits as I move along in the sport. I hope you are all well.


Peace, Love, and Goof Food.


Mike

One month give or take a week

It has been a month since I came back to America, a month of traveling, visiting, talking, and questioning. I still don’t know what I am doing, but the best way to stifle the unnerving sense of doom is to keep doing something. So today I am studying, I am learning how to move forward in my life. I am making decisions about my future, and I am throwing things away.

I spent the morning sorting through boxes from my past, piles of detritus left from a pack-ratting childhood. Everything I threw away had a memory connected to it, each choice was difficult. But in the end I feel better for letting it go. Some of it went to Goodwill, some of it went to the landfill, but the one time consciousness hit is so worth the long term liberation from my clutter.

Go forth, do good things and eat good food with friends.

Peace and Love
Mike

NYC

Short Post:

I made it safely to the United states, Will Ferrel was on my plane from LA to New York, it was hard to leave ARI, I am going to central park tomorrow, and I am trying to get some sleep right now even though it is lunch time in Japan. I hope you are all well.

Peace and Love

Mike

The day before departure

It hasn't hit me yet that I will be gone tomorrow. Everyone keeps reminding me of my lasts, my last lunch, my last working day, my last weekend, my last foodlife, my last night, etc. etc. I gave up on lasts back in high school, everything is a last until you do it again.

I am taking the afternoon to pack and wrap up loose ends before my flight. The weekend was full of last minute trips and get-togethers with friends, and I am notorious for last minute packing so I have my work cut out for me today.

It will be hard to say goodbye tomorrow, but I will do my best. I like it here, despite some of the pitfalls of a community life, an "it's not perfect but its mine" kind of thing, I guess you could say I have grown comfortable. I will come back sooner rather than later, but maybe just in a visitor role.

To add some color to this post I have added a few of my favorite pictures, some may look familiar from the last slide show but I thought they deserved some individual attention. I misplaced my camera a few weeks ago so I have not been able to add anything new but this should tide you over. I hope you are all doing well and eating good food. This might be my last post from Japan (but it might not) so I will see many of you soon.

Final Morning Gathering

I have about 10 days left at ARI. My flight home is scheduled for September 29th at 4PM. By home I mean the US, I will fly to New York for about a week and land in Texas on October 9th. Next week I will be in Tokyo for a few days to visit friends and attend the 150th anniversary of the Anglican Church in Japan.

Yesterday I had my final morning gathering where I summed up my experiences at ARI and talked about the future. This is a slideshow I made for the morning gathering. It includes pictures from my year at ARI.



During my sharing I read my answer to the question "what do you do at ARI?". Here is an excerpt:
What do we do? What do we do? Where the hell have you been? We create change, we educate the educators, we share food (for a fair price) we plant we grow we harvest we learn. What do you mean what do we do? 1100 graduates in 50 countries across Asia and Africa, 36 years. What do we do indeed. We bring people, smart, educated people, pillars of their communities, leaders in their own rights, and we bring them to this little corner of the world. We invite them to come and live and learn with us for 9 months. We all live and learn about life, food, community. We learn about the three pillars, love soil, love neighbor, love god. We learn about appropriate technology; biogas, wind energy, biodiesel, bicycles, incubation. We learn about agriculture (organic and otherwise) , aquaculture, animal husbandry. We learn about the dangers of an unchecked global marketplace for small, ill equipped rural farmers with governments that don’t care for their welfare. We learn about pesticides and chemical fertilizers. We learn about bokashi and compost, why to spray milk on aphids, and why ducks and rice are such good friends. We learn about butchering and the true cost of meat, castration and egg hatching. We learn about the connection between food and life. And sometimes, we even learn how to laugh again. Sometimes, yes sometimes, we even dance.

What do we do indeed.

And with that I will leave you to get back to your lives. I hope you are challenged and happy.

peace love and good food

Mike