A Philosopher’s Adventure #24

Episode #24 - The Power of Community

Good Fences Make Good Fences

This is a transformative episode. This episode demonstrates the best of humanity while simultaneously fulfilling the dreams of a philosopher. I bang on about living slower and living inefficiently. Martijn does me a solid by opening the episode with a scythe in hand, cutting down the roughage of the mountainside. The hard work has its payoff when we see Martijn taking the time to make breakfast. He stands by his outdoor kitchen while coffee brews. Another delicious-looking bowl of oats, fruits, and berries is assembled for him to enjoy, sitting on a rock overlooking the valley. I see this and think about the slower life that provides room to appreciate the rewards of what we build around us. The value of rest is maintained. It feels like the value of rewards in my life is defined by what needs to happen when the reward is completed. For example, when I go on vacation, there is a point in that vacation where I need to think about going back to work. There is a time when both work and reward occupy the same mental space. I’ve had jobs where the crossover was heavy, and in recent years of my life, I’ve tried very hard to create hard edges between work and life. Leaving corporate work behind played a huge role in progressing toward that goal.

I see Martijn take a deep breath while his breakfast brews, and he is in the moment. The job of scything the grass is done, and it is off the list. He will return to the list when breakfast is over and do the next thing. It's such an appealing way to live.

That is an old lesson with a new tool, the scythe. The episode becomes transformative when visitors come to the mountain and effortlessly show off the best of humanity.

Community

The Americans from two episodes ago were a prelude to what we see here. We met Lucas, Mario, and Karolina. Lucas and Mario work in the basement, picking up where the Americans left off. The job is simple: dig dirt, but this basement's story will be rich when finished. How many hands have we seen make an impact on the basement project? Martijn started and could have kept going, but there was too much elsewhere on the mountain that needed to be done. Help showed up in the form of youthful wanderers willing to put in the effort to help, who were effectively strangers in a basement where they would probably never sleep. Spoiler alert: it becomes a bedroom. That is culture, and culture creates community. A community that extends beyond those present on any given day, connected by the shared effort of those who added to the story.

We then join Martijn and his three visitors for an afternoon beer while they share stories of their travels. Karolina shared the route she took on her bike to get to the mountain. The way the camera is set up makes it feel like we are part of the conversation. There is no urgency. Experiences collected by everyone are described to the group and then compared to similar experiences in different parts of the world. The barriers we are so good at building in our societies are broken down when we realize that what we experience over there is basically the same over here. Cultures intertwine, and communities grow ever so slightly as the stories of others weave themselves into our own stories.

These aren’t groundbreaking concepts. The difference here is that we see this happen on a small scale in the edited minutes of this episode.

But wait, there’s more! The community building doesn’t stop there when we move to the campfire, where dinner is being made. Dishes are being prepared and washed, and tasks are being spread amongst the group. Ignore the fact that Martijn is standing around in the picture above. He works hard; he can stand around. More conversation and a meal are shared. I have to take a Californian side quest and comment on what is referred to as “quite a long drive,” then follow up with, “Yeah, it’s about 5 hours.” That’s cute. That’s about half the drive to visit my in-laws, and no, flying would not be faster. The best example I can think of to demonstrate how much space the states take up. For reference, the drive from London to Turin is just under 13h20m hours. The drive from the southern to the northern border of California is 13h3m hours. The side quest is over. Thank you for attending my geography talk.

The Philosopher Speaks

The same dinner reaches a point where one of the gents asks, “Do you feel lonely sometimes?” Martijn, without hesitation, answers, “No.” The response is a one-word question, “Never?” They don’t believe him. The question is asked, “Can you please tell us what steps to follow?” Again, without hesitation, Martijn answers in a serious and experienced tone, “Live in the moment.” The group collectively confirms that what Martijn is saying is true, but I still don’t think they grasp (or believe) what he is saying. To Martijn’s credit, he says at the end, “It’s easy to say.”

At the risk of making this small scene do the heavy lifting, I think this encapsulates the core of this story. How do we set up our lives so they don’t get bigger than we can maintain? How do we, stop the insanity (90s reference, can’t help myself), prevent ourselves from chasing a life rather than living a constructed life? Martijn says there are all kinds of different people and different ways we can interact with the people around us. It doesn’t always take direct interaction to fulfill our needs. For some, it does take interaction to feel a connection and community. We play our roles in the way we play them.

There is a style in which Martijn delivers this sermon. He includes pauses to let the moment breathe. These are the moments I’m not sure his current flock grasps. Living in the moment takes a certain level of having lived. It’s difficult to impart the value of time to young people. Those memes that say, “One day, all your friends played together for the last time, and you didn’t know it,” hurt my core because it is true. I can think of the last summer spent together with friends, but I don’t recall, in those moments, thinking about the significance of those final summers and the last days before someone moved away. Part of why I watch this story and think about the world is to think about how we, as a species, can better define the value of time and put to rest the idea that “youth is wasted on the young.” How can we return the value of lost time to those stuck in the rush? How can we feel like we are living rather than keeping up or not falling too far behind?

It does not go unnoticed by me that most people who come to the mountain are from the younger set. Part of that is the location and culture of travel. Another part is the bonds that have not yet set these individuals into the bonds of working to live. Thankfully, they are asking the questions that allow them to sneak up on their destiny. They ask how not to be lonely, yet they are in the process of building community bonds. They know how; they just don’t believe it. The recognition of real community is something that will come with time, and the hope is that the bonds of work do not take hold before they can properly recognize what a community can do for them.

Dudes & Dudette Moving Heavy Things Episode 4ish?

More dudes (Alessandro & Gino) come to the mountain, so we will start moving heavy things around. The first iteration is the cement mixer being moved off the trailer. The mixer is moved below the cabin. The second iteration is a giant stone that will be used as a tabletop. Spoiler: it will become a stone picnic table that will feature prominently in future meals and have a beautiful view. The third iteration is the movement of a shower stone, to be used as a floor for the new shower going in near the tent and new outdoor kitchen.

Community is Relentless, In a Good Way

We now have six people on the mountain, and this episode is about to hit its stride. A community is a collection of people working toward common goals, each doing their role in pursuing those common goals. A good community allows contributions to be made at the speed of the individual, providing support when needed while setting expectations at manageable levels for all its members. What we see this group of people accomplish is the creation of a temporary community, working together to feel a connection to what they are doing while helping an individual tell a story they are all drawn toward.

Progress is made on an outdoor dining table. Flowers are picked and placed around the cabin, bringing the colors of life to the stone-based pallet. The tent setup is improved. An outhouse is built. The new shower has started. Dinner is assembled. More stories are shared. Everyone stuffs themselves into the small cabin to escape the rain and play a card game.

This is not an exhaustive list but an impressive list of what this group gets accomplished while on the mountain. We don’t know the individuals' collective skill level, but they get a lot of work done in less than a week. The transformation I mention at the start is not just the definition of what we are watching but the presentation of the mountain itself. Progress, progress, progress, but there is no stress here. There are lessons along the way. Collaborating and problem-solving to feel like something was accomplished to improve the community space. These concepts are “pillars of culture” to corporate leadership groups. Still, we see the same ideas in this episode applied on the “scale of humanity,” I feel warmed inside by how these people work and learn together. Corporate or business existence thinks this is what it creates for the betterment of their stakeholders. What we see in this episode will forever go untouched by the invisible hand. Not to make this a corporate life trauma dump, but that is a large part of my life experience over the last 20 years. I don’t think I am unique, and I don’t think the experience is unique to those who work for large companies worldwide. The ideas that fuel the machine of society fuel the general ideas of business, and sadly, many of us get swept up into the machine before we have a chance to understand the cost of what we are being swept into.

The Professor Teaches

There are two moments where Martijn teaches a lesson. The first was making driving a nail into a beam easier using a bigger hammer—not just a hammer, but the back of an axe head. These are the tips in life that will make a difference in the future. It’s such a quick moment within the episode, but it impacts the individual. “That was the moment I learned the value of the other tools around me,” will be the thought in the future. The demonstration of the benefits of community gives me hope for what we can accomplish.

The next lesson revolved around the construction of the outhouse walls. Martijn explains how to get a better fit on boards if they are a little warped. A nail to hold or a clamp to make the installation flush is a good method. Three minutes later, we see the lesson put into practice when Martijn isn’t there. How cool is it to see people gain knowledge and then apply that knowledge on their own?

Outro

Martijn ends the episode by letting us in on the motivation for the life he is after on the mountain. A movie called A Hidden Life shows off the romantic lifestyle. There is a scene where the grass is being cut using a scythe. At that moment, Martijn thought, “This is the life I want.” We got to see his dreams come true. How often does that happen? In sport, I feel like we see that often, but in the slow pursuit of a life that fits the meaning one if looking for, I feel a genuine happiness for Martijn. He goes on to talk about all the people and where they came from to be on the mountain this week. Fulfilled dreams, community, and collective effort in the pursuit of personal growth. Humanity had a good week on the mountain.

This was a transformative episode. The preview we got from the Americans established a new approach to thinking about what a community means, how it is constructed, and what it can do in a week. We learned the permits for the cabin restoration have been approved. This means we will be moving into the next phase of this story. This episode also brought out the long-form version of one of these essays. If you made it this far, thank you. I feel better having seen this episode. I look forward to the progress on the cabin. I look forward to future interactions on the mountain now that we’ve seen two groups visit, and it gives me some hope for humanity. The future is bright in so many respects, and that feels like something we don’t get to say as often as we should.

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

CHR;)