I try to spend at least a week a year away from civilization. Alone with family and friends on a isolated lake in central Ontario. No electricity, no indoor toilet, no access roads.
We get in by float plane and out the same way.
This comes as close to true wilderness as one can get in today’s on demand world in which we live.
I go there to fish. I go there to relax. I go there to spend time with those I care most about. But mostly, I go there to remember. To refresh in my mind how little one truly needs in order to survive. To recall for a week the pleasure derived from being self-reliant. To be reminded of the value in hard work.
I fish for my food. Clean it and cook it. I chop wood for the fire. Build it and tend it. I battle daily my most fierce of foes…the ice house. Chip and clean the ice, keep the coolers filled, and the beer ice cold. I keep the camp clean to keep the bears away.
And I watch for those bears, and the moose, and the eagles. To get a glimpse of the natural world hidden from me through most of the year.
In short, I leave the world of my other fifty one weeks behind and remember what it is to be a man.
So little in today’s culture demands of one any struggle whatsoever. Sacrifice is a word better left to other generations. Surely never heard uttered from the mouths of the ‘gimme generation’ and its political patronizers.
I yearn for that harder life. For the man versus nature conditions of our forefathers. For the demands of self-sufficiency. For the honor that comes with struggle.
I am daily saddened by what I see of the young males loose on the streets of today’s America. Sad at the lack of respect. Sad at the lack of responsibility. Sad at the lack of interest of what makes up a man.
I long to take these young men with me. Miles away from iPods and Grand Theft Auto. Let them discover the true self esteem that comes from experience and self-reliance. Find the honor inherent in personal responsibility and struggle. Learn that character comes from hard work and respect. See them spend at least a week a year away from civilization.

Crossposted @ Sticks and Stones

Said Glen @ 8:07 pm | Permalink   

1. Hard work is a virtue. Indeed, at times I yearn for times such as you describe so that other, lazier people would not have so much time to complain.

   Comment by Ogre — 3/30/2006 @ 10:20 am

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