I’ve been surprised to find myself reflecting back upon this year before the end of it. My year-end reflections usually don’t start until New Year’s Day.
Perhaps it has to do with not only the historic magnitude of this year, but also because Kristy and I have done more traveling this year than any other in our 48 years together. That says a lot. We love to travel.
Most of our traveling includes camping; We love the outdoors and we are not wealthy, so economics helps drive the camping requirement. I have particularly enjoyed learning how to camp minimally. That concept is to survive with as little as possible but still having enough comfort to let yourself actually want to keep on camping. This, in turn, makes one especially grateful when you turn to “clamping,” with luxuries like electricity and a clean bathroom.
We took our little camper and tent gear on a 9,400-mile loop around the U.S. this past August. From Beaufort, we went straight up to Mackinaw and Lake Superior, heading west along Superior’s coast line. Then onto Route 2 that parallels the Canadian border, traveling all the way to Port Townsend located on the Olympic Peninsula.
From there, down the west coast to Crescent City, Calif., then criss-crossing to Joseph, Ore., back up to Port Townsend, then heading south to Stillwater, Okla. From Stillwater, up to Missouri, winding our way east, heading through the Appalachians, drifting toward home.
Whew. What a fantastic, diverse, big country we are honored to live in. We camped the entire six-week journey. It took me two weeks to recover. It was a life-changing trip for me, and I still haven’t fully wrapped my head around it.
In October, we finally got to travel to Europe, this time in the seat of luxury within a Viking “Rhine Getaway.” This was our first visit to Europe and our first river cruise. The trip took more than two years to become a reality because it was a trip we had booked just before the world started shutting down due to Covid.
I must plug Viking here: We received more info and updates in the early days of Covid from Viking than we did from the sitting U.S. government at the time. We loved visiting riverside cities and villages along the Rhine River, touching five countries in the course of two weeks. The line I used at the time with people in conversation during the trip was that I felt I was living in a fairy tale.
We hiked dozens of miles within our ports of call, and it took me another full week to recover from this trip even though it was luxurious compared to camping the whole time. This trip was another life-changing experience that I’m still processing now, as well.
I think that is one reason it has taken me so long to write about our travels. Just how these trips have changed me, I haven’t fully grasped.
That’s the personal side of 2022. The insurrection investigation, the Big Lie, the war in Ukraine, the relentless mid-terms, our back-stepping Supreme Court, world immigration, mass murders, natural disasters, the relentless media, Musk and Twitter, world-wide protests, and lest we forget, Trump’s digital trading cards. I could go on with 2022 historical significance, but I’m not sure I want too. Where indeed is the world heading? Why has fighting autocracy seemed so hard to win (not won!) this year?
All I can testify to you all right now is that we indeed must live this life, in this world, together. All through our entire travels this past year, we were enthralled with the wonders and diversities of our country and what we saw of ancient Europe. All people in the world share the same modern day concerns.
Lake Como in Italy was at least two feet below normal. Commerce came to a standstill upon the Rhine this past summer because of low water, (one can’t appreciate that significance until you actually see the amount of commerce and barge traffic that depends on the Rhine River).
Of course we Americans could witness a dry Mississippi here. Could you ever have imagined we might live to see the mighty Mississippi run so low? In Europe we witnessed first-hand what social programs there have done for common people: Low gun crime, very few homeless and drug deaths and excellent public transportation. It seemed to us the Europeans we observed have their priorities correct.
Traveling across the U.S., we met caring, generous people from seemingly different cultures living in towns and cities that varied from state to state. Everyone we spoke with seemed concerned about our country’s social divisions without making us feel that we are divided. And everywhere, Americans concerned and rooting for the Ukraine, freedom and democracy.
People everywhere interested in world affairs with concerns for our environment. Our travels this year have actually shown me, proven to me, we are, indeed, in this life, this world, together, No matter what labels you put on the conditions of our present world, something in nature and the nature of man is changing, and it seems to me the entire globe is not working together enough to solve our most urgent physical and moral problems. Problems that we all share: Our weather, droughts, war, famine, social decline and our shared world societal decadence.
When I dwell upon the billions of American dollars spent between lobbyists, governmental lawsuits, proxy, as well as united wars, our greedy corporations and the billions more that people spend on personal entertainments, I always seem to recall the old Aesop fable of the grasshopper fiddling away in the summer as the ants toil away making ready for the long winter.
People are permitted to choose the ending to this fable: The grasshopper is either shunned during the winter by the ants or taken in, where he supplies entertainment, earning his keep safe inside the colony. Depending upon what ending you choose in this fable, the core moral is quite clear: Societies must prepare for the future in order to survive. Societies should plan and invest according to their citizens’ universal needs.
If you are a fiddling grasshopper, perhaps you should not count on an empathetic world in your future – it may be ending within our human species. We know that the human and animal world is now struggling to survive. And even in a true rule of law, a humane democratic world, ants in the natural real world simply devour a weakened grasshopper. Survival of the fittest is not a pleasant way to live, just try off grid camping or being homeless for a week.
Tim and Kristy Wood moved to Beaufort in 1974. He worked as a carpenter in both restoration and new home construction, as well as operating a shop specializing in custom woodwork, Wood on Wood Specs. He is semi-retired, involved with fine woodworking and formerly sat on the City of Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals.
