On Empowerment

GC Guy said something kind of startling this morning, while enthusing about his new rifle and spotlight. He said, “Thanks for talking me down and taking that trip yesterday. I was really freaked and out of my element, and you helped … empower me.”

That was nice. I replied something like, “Well, I respect anybody who moves here from the city and makes a go of it. Anything I can do to help that along, it's a pleasure.”

And I meant that and all, but thinking further on the subject I felt like kind of a fraud for having said it. I have no special qualifications for living happily out here. I'm from Detroit and lived most of my life in cities, same as most people. It's not like I moved here to get a break from my lifetime busting horses on Montana ranches or anything. If anything, I'm unqualified. There's a lot of work involved, and I'm the laziest guy I know.

So that got me thinking about the whole subject of 'empowerment.' Because that's really what I like about living out in the boondocks.

It always used to bother me that I was so dependent for my very life on structures built by other people. It just struck me as wrong that I didn't know how to do anything on my own. Isn't adulthood about growth and maturity? And isn't a part of maturity the ability to take care of yourself, your own needs, your own defense? Look, I'm not completely crazy, I like the comforts that come with modern living. Who wouldn't? But there's something infantilizing about it as well, if the only way to gain those comforts is to abandon self-determination and depend entirely on others.

Here, if you want a house you'd better be willing to build yourself one. If you want the wonders of modern living, like electricity and running water, you need to arrange those things for yourself. For some of the more fundamental things, like food, well, I could have picked a more congenial location. But even that isn't out of the question in the future. We're working on it.

Now we're looking at a … well, not a crisis, exactly. A challenge. The change in wildlife behavior is actually minor, compared to the fact that this afternoon we've learned that yet another town south of us is being evacuated. Shortly before quitting time I said to GC Guy, “When I got here there was some infrastructure built but not a stone on a stone. Now we've got a big barn and three houses, and I helped build every one of them. That's the first time I ever had that chance, and I'm not gonna drive away from it and pray it doesn't burn. So if they can't stop the fire in the forest and it looks like coming here, I'm gonna send Click and the boys to the city and get ready to fight fire.”

GC Guy had been thinking the same thing. “We've got access to at least three tractors. If we start with the southernmost houses, we've got time to clear the brush and trees from around everybody we know. I'm in.”

And that was what I wanted to hear, and it kind of settled my earlier question. What is 'empowerment?' It's power. It's adulthood.