The Whole Earth

This link is a map of where various Whole Eartherlings have ended up. It’s amazing to see how much the folks who work at this store get around. Proof positive that traveling is not based on how much money you have, but how much you want it. Nobody who works at there makes more than $10 an hour, and yet here they are scatered across the globe. Awesome.
Bruce Chatwin had a lot of intresting theories in his bookThe Songlines, about the Human need for travel. How babies like to be walked. How the nomadic culture is something out of our svannah days when we’d out endurance our prey. We’re a mobile bunch. It seems to me that we kind of deny our nature by anchoring ourselves down, setting up camp.

A lot of my friends are seasonal workers, and while I know it has it’s drawbacks they have a good thing going on. Spend the Summer in Alaska or Colorado guiding or running a shop. When the snow starts come on back to Austin for the winter. It’s not exactly treking across the savannah on foot, but it’s not far off.

“What about retirement, your 401(k) ?”
What about it, dude. Does anyone of my age honestly belive that we’ll be able to retire like our grnadparents did ?Not freakin likely. I’ll be shocked and appalled if i get to stop punching a clock at 60. In 30 Years there will be 1 retiree for every 2 workers. So one way or the other I’m going to be working on something for quite a while. So why not the seasonal work. Why not get the added benefit of living in two places (especailly to take advantage of the climate) And take the opprotunity to enjoy the different parts of the world a bit.
I’m soooooo going to end up as the 85-yr-old Kayak guide.

Update: Some new figures on the ridiculous amount we’ll be paying to support the baby-boomers. Make that the 105-yr-old-kayak guide.