I spent most of my youth, until age 18, in rural and semi-rural locales. Farm in Ohio, hilltop in Alabama, Sierra foothills of Northern California. Outdoors was simply part of the gig. Heck, even the "town kids" spent most of their time outdoors, my outdoors was just more woodsy. Our family camped regularly. I could build shelter, make fire, cook primitive. I was no scout, but I could get by.
At 18, everything changed. A few years of Air Force, a decade of voluteer work in Europe, and eventually a geek career that led me to dwell in built-up areas that had opportunities for geeks. By this time I'm in my mid thirties.
Comes marriage, couple of kids, movin' up in my career field, and finally "comfort" sets in. House, couple of cars, scale up from walking the treadmill to jogging on it, and eventually going at a full run with no option for stopping.
At age 52, the opportunity to return to a locale closer to wilderness shows up, and we move to the Reno/Tahoe area. Wife and I make a commitment to start spending time outdoors, camp, hike, etc., since both of us had "roughing it" childhoods, and both of us missed that. (It is at the point that I discover I'm going to have to research knives, since my old Gerbers aren't made any more.)
It's nearly ten years later. Finances and the economy have hijacked my time and very little of it has been spent outdoors. Too soon old, too late wise. I've begun to renew my studies of outdoor skills. During my volunteer days, I spent a couple of years on shipboard and learned knots. I'm having to learn all that over again.
Happily, the last eight years have provided much enlightenment regarding knives and cutting tools in general. Gawd, I had no idea a guy could be that ignorant about something so basic.
I'm not as sanguine as some regarding the near-term stability of our society. My wife is a researcher, and almost daily she turns up something new that turns my hair an even lighter shade of grey. I'll spare you the "conspiracy" mantra, but even the optimistic projections are now basically a lacquered turd.
I fully expect at some point in the next few years to have my skills put to the test, even if only as a ranch/farm hand for someone who was smarter than I was.
The outdoors itself? Beauty. Challenge. An exercise in competence. Even the open sea is "outdoors," and contains those same elements.
Ironically, civilization has made possible the advances in metallurgy and metalworking that bring us the tools that let us go out "alone" into the wild and hold our own. I don't "hate" civilization. I just don't want it to own me.
