'THE LAST NIGHT ON THE RIVER we unroll goose-down bags on a tarpaulin thrown down over river sand and small stones. We do not speak of anything we have seen. We each wish in our different ways for some insurance against the disappearance of wild relationships here. These dreams of preservation for the very things that induce a sense of worth in human beings must have been dreamt seven thousand years ago on the Euphrates... dreams of respectful human participation in a landscape, generation after generation. Dreams of need and fulfillment. Common enough dreams. Poignant, ineffable, indefensible, the winds of an interior landscape. A handful of beautiful damp stones in arctic sunlight, a green duck feather stuck to one finger. Water dripping back into the river. I fumble at some prayer here I have forgotten, utterly forgotten, how to perform. I place the stones back in the river, as carefully as possible, and move inland to sleep.'
—Barry Lopez, from Crossing Open Ground. 1983
What does living in a time of overshoot and collapse tell us about being human? What are our dreams now?
A saner world? The world we've made would be a different place, a better place, should it become made for humans, and all our relatives.
Of course, there's no clear answer to what humans truly are. Each of us writes that truth with the arc of our lives. But here's an important question: do you have faith in the core nature of the human animal, despite the cultures that have come to dominate?
I know I do. The best way I know to respond to the wreckage of the world and its state of crisis is to go 'full human'. To make a creative practice out of being fully yourself, to the best of your ability. To explore the terrain that we badly want to come home to but is culturally difficult—all the really human stuff like belonging to a caring community, having purpose and meaningful work, having time to think and respond creatively, to attend to love and friendship and reciprocity, to connect to the wild and wonderful life in our home landscapes.
The podcast series' here all ask some version of the question: given the world as it is, what do we want to make of our lives? What is important to create in these times?
Going Home Now is an introduction and a context setter, my first foray into podcasting, and an attempt to see the big picture at hand. The eponymous Going Human series is in production, to be released soon, each season taking a journey into an aspect what it means to go human in wild times.
Listen in and get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.
Until then, take care—
Andy Wildman