A Philosopher’s Adventure #16

Episode #16 - A Tour, A Test, A Plumber, and A Walkway

The Other Side of the valley. The highest cleared patch just about level with Martijn’s watch is his patch of mountain paradise

A Little Bit of Everything

I remember in high school, there were kids who always seemed to be doing something epic. What I really think happened was that they had epic storytelling skills, but what they really did on a week-to-week basis was close to mundane. As I watch Martijn’s existence, I think about how we are just watching someone live their dream and literally build a life. This is special to us as the audience, but it is the norm for the person on our screens. The backdrops we live with are vastly different, but the mentality doesn’t have to be.

This episode starts with Martijn taking a walk to see his surroundings from a different perspective. An interesting view for us is seeing the homestead from the other side of his valley. I think this is the only time we really get to see this view, and it’s fascinating. When we’re on the homestead, he feels like he is far away from his neighbors, but they seem relatively close from this view. The mundane nature of life shows itself again with the addition of a fixture to a door. Aesthetic changes to your surroundings are things we can do. I don’t want to fall into the trap of always chasing the lives of other people. I have to remind myself of that as I watch each episode. As I write this, episode #114 has been released, and the unrelenting progress of this homestead is hard for me to keep up with. My dreams want to go at the same speed as this story is unfolding. That is not my reality, and I don’t want to fall into the chase trap.

Therefore, I am reminding myself that Martijn is living his life at his speed and I am here trying to take the lessons and find the peace that will help me along in my own journey.

Sometimes it is Epic

This episode features a windstorm, and Martijn has to inspect the area late at night. These are the extremes of the mountains that I don’t have to deal with in my life. There is a moment when Martijn is in the small cabin and says he will “try to sleep.” Early signs say that the damage will be minimal, but this is a fine reminder that there are struggles that everyone has to deal with. There are unknowns, and there is stress, even for those who don’t ever look stressed.

My other takeaway from the storm is when the crane is knocked down. We could look at this as energy being wasted, or we could look at the energy put in so far combined with proper planning, which makes it easier to pick up the pieces when our own windstorms hit our lives. The crane is so neat, and I’m really looking forward to seeing this thing in action. Johannes makes an off-camera appearance and asks about the calculations and how much weight it can carry. Such an Austrian way to ask a question. Martijn, who strikes me as an iteration testing kind of engineer, doesn’t have an answer, then gives an answer that is basically, “vibes, I’m going to lift some heavy stone vibes and see how it goes.” What a great neighbor to have.

All Plans Are Temporary

Martijn decides the kitchen water line needs to be buried and this means part of the stone path he spent so much time working on needs to be dug up for a pipe trench. How many people would stop there because they had already done the work on the stone path? This is an example of flexibility in your situation that has many applications in our lives. All effort is good effort as long as it moves our story forward. Sometimes that forward requires us to retrace some steps, but letting the loss of past effort to be a roadblock for effort in the future can do a lot of damage. I’m very guilty of this with my writing projects. When I come back after a long break, I am reluctant to dive in as deep as I was the first time.

The job is done, and the results are gorgeous. There is a line I love where Martijn talks about adding grass seed. He is going to spread some seed and hopes that it starts growing. “I’m not sure if that’s how it works,” implying that you might need more than just spreading the seeds for them to grow. I love the attitude.

I encourage you to take the time to watch the chapter where he takes a morning walk. The images above are from that section of the episode. Take in the sounds of the mountains. The birds are the featured artist, with a hollow hum of the wind in the background. It’s very peaceful.

I leave you with the first real test of the crane. It is so cool and so simple. I also think the winch system is fatally flawed, but we’re not going to worry about that today. Today, we get to see the crane swing some heavy rocks around. The vibe calculations were as accurate as they needed to be.

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

CHR;)