Becoming an Outlaw...
The Turning Feral Daily Journal - Day 13
Day 13: There is something special about the outlaw state of mind. No, I am not talking about the outlaws of old who were gunslingers and robbers, but the new age outlaws… You, the reader of this daily devotional, myself, and countless others who are bucking the system to a small degree to live life on their own terms.
Though we don’t have to go as far as Claude Dallas to espouse the outlaw persona, there is a beauty in pushing back against authority and societal expectations writ large. If you are a millennial, like myself, you were told in school to follow the “playbook” and everything would work out. You would get the education you needed (at a steep price) and everything else would magically fall into place… the family, the home, the satisfaction.
But, it turns out that was all a lie. As my generation came of age we were embroiled in a two front war (which some of my friends never came back from), we were hit with recessions, inflation, and an unstable job market. And you know what? We weren’t happy. But, despite the unhappiness, myself and so many people still kept pushing for that dream we were promised… Why?
The answer is that we weren’t cowboy enough to get what we really wanted. We had been put into cookie-cutter molds since childhood, and our creative and outlaw nature had been blunted for so long that we couldn’t see the forest through the trees. But, thankfully that is all changing!
So many of us have finally pulled our heads out of the sand and see things for what they are and are adjusting our dreams and desires… but to attain those dreams of being self-sustaining, we have to embrace our innate outlaw nature that has laid dormant for most of our lives.
Writing Prompt: Think about some of the most famous outlaws throughout history… Poets, gunslingers, revolutionaries, artists, etc… What characteristics of their nature speak to you? What positive mentalities could you start to adopt in your everyday life that may help you get the things you want out of building a sustainable lifestyle? Write them down here:
Motivational Passage:
The outlaw is the radical, the one close to the roots of existence. The one who refuses to forget their humanity and, in remembering, helps everyone else remember, too.
- David Whyte
Rewilding Action: One of the big promises to my generation was that if you ever needed food it would be there in a grocery store. This has largely held true until the first chink in the armor was seen during the pandemic when the meat shelves were empty. So, one of our family “outlaw” approaches was to start thinking that food may not always be available, and we need to be prepared to feed ourselves. So, aside from hunting, we have started to explore freeze drying our leftover food to use on our backcountry adventures and to have as a backup in case we find ourselves in a spot without access to a grocery store.