[P2P-F] [p2p-research] beyond "road burn-out" : what is (y)our story ?

[Dante-Gabryell Monson]

Thanks Michel !
... slowly moving in that direction,
rebuilding ( access to ) infrastructure and resources, and more consolidated
interdependencies

http://sharewiki.org/en/Nomad_Tribe

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> thanks for sharing this Dante ... for me, the neonomad lifestyle misses
> rooted community .. the original nomads travelled with their families, and
> so did the thatcher era travellers, walking alone, even from friend to
> friend, would be for me deeply unsatisfying ...
>
> also there seem to be a refusal on your part to do any 'work', i.e.
> committing results in exchange for an income or share of proceeds, making
> you dependent on other's charity ... this is something that in my opinion,
> will dry out as you get older and the charm of youth wears off ...
>
> finally, I also believe that though you are contributing to networks, it's
> hard to see what it is that is being constructed in a more concrete fashion,
> and that a community may want to support on a longer term basis ... I feel
> there is something lacking in an approach which always stresses 'intention',
> but does not go much into 'realization',
>
> Michel
>
> On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 6:39 PM, Dante-Gabryell Monson <
> dante.monson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I feel like sharing this message with personal views I sent to the nomad
>> base list,
>> as it relates to my "road" to the conference in Manchester some of you
>> might attend this next Tuesday :
>>
>> http://www.espach.salford.ac.uk/sssi/p2p/
>>
>> I feel like sharing, potentially enabling a shared reflection on the
>> context of our lives,
>> and how such layers of context inter-relate with the intentions we may try
>> to pursue on this list and in our lives.
>>
>> "The road" can also be seen symbolically, although in my own experience it
>> is also made of concrete. ( at least there is one "concrete" thing I know
>> well ;-)   )
>>
>> See you , Dante
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 12:26 PM
>> Subject: beyond "road burn-out" : what is (y)our story ?
>> To: nomadbase at lists.0xb5.org
>>
>>
>> Dear Friends,
>>
>> I try to face my fears,
>> and today my fear is related to going back on the road...
>>
>> I feel like sharing it here on the nomadbase list, as I feel that it is
>> part of what motivates my intention to support nomad bases<http://nomadbase.org/>
>> ,.
>>
>> *Note : For translation to other languages, I suggest using
>> http://translate.google.com/ to copy/paste and translate.*
>> *
>> *
>> *De : Hinweis: Für die Übersetzung in andere Sprachen lassen, verwende
>> ich http://translate.google.com/ zum Kopieren / Einfügen und Übersetzen.*
>> *
>> *
>> *Fr : Note: Pour la traduction dans d'autres langues, je suggere
>> d'utiliser http://translate.google.com/ *
>> *
>> *
>> *Es : Nota: Para la traducción a otros idiomas, sugiero utilizar
>> http://translate.google.com/ *
>>
>> -----------
>>
>>
>> I imagine we all have our personal histories...
>> And that perhaps some parts of our histories might have elements in
>> common.
>>
>> I am interested in understanding what your wishes may be, and perhaps how
>> you feel they relate to your feelings and experiences.
>>
>> -----
>>
>> By the way, for those of you that did not meet me ,
>> a quick introduction of myself on
>>
>> http://hitchwiki.org/en/Dante
>>
>> and
>>
>>
>> http://web.archive.org/web/20070220100438/oikoumene.coforum.net/wikka.php?wakka=DanteProfiles
>>
>> ----------
>>
>> *Current feeling ;*
>>
>> I realize that it takes a little time to shift my mind and body in going
>> back on the road, as it reminds me of states of accumulated exhaustion of
>> years of isolated traveling , "hitch hiking burn-out's"
>> , especially after my second year on the road : a form of traveling that I
>> was not choosing anymore.
>>
>> Traveling is a condition I want to choose to use towards an objective or
>> intention,
>> enabling creation of inter-dependence , discovery of self and the other.
>>
>> But when there is constant repetition of change in a space feeling void of
>> potential for inter-dependence and sharing,
>> staying stuck in a constant non-choice of nothingness and no-where-ness ,
>> it may loose meaning,
>> despite nothingness potentially being an interesting spiritual experience
>> that can be used to overcome insecurity in every moment, and become aware of
>> our layers of illusions.
>>
>> At some point of nothingness, I feel a choice can be made to create
>> inter-dependence, to feel inter-dependence, to reclaim inter-dependence, and
>> to develop a sense of meaning through creation and shared presence.
>>
>> -------
>>
>> *Current situation :*
>>
>> I was planning to hitch hike to London yesterday, meeting a friend there,
>> while going on my way to Manchester for a conference (
>> http://www.espach.salford.ac.uk/sssi/p2p/ )
>> related to various inter-connected networks / media ecologies such as the
>> p2pfoundation <http://p2pfoundation.net/> or open manufacturing<http://www.openmanufacturing.net/>
>>  ,
>> revolving around ideas of openness. <http://www.openmanufacturing.net/>
>>
>> I did not leave Brussels yet, but I will, after writing this message.
>>
>> I try to set my mind to going back on the road, although it may be only
>> for a few days.
>>
>> -----
>>
>> *History and experiences leading to layers of context :*
>>
>> I have been back in Brussels, the town where I grew up, for one year.
>>
>> After being on the road for 5 years, hitch hiking something like 300 000
>> km or more ( stopped counting ),
>> I started developing some kind of hitch hiking overdose.
>>
>> I do not think the overdose is related to hitch hiking alone, but to the
>> context around it,
>> a context that evolved through time.
>>
>> I ll try to detail it in this message.
>>
>> ---------------------
>>
>> At first, I was traveling without hitch hiking, attending seminars funded
>> mostly by EU money, as a "young" delegate of ecologist organizations.
>>
>> Hitch hiking evolved from there... as an approach to empower meetings
>> beyond dependency on organizational power structures and funding mechanisms,
>>
>> and to inspire others in developing such self
>> empowered net-roots approach.
>>
>> Hitch hiking, at first, was tiring, but exciting at the same time, opening
>> up new opportunities for keeping faith in building some alternatives
>> through meeting new people,
>> while discovering new places and facing myself through new experiences.
>>
>> My body started to adapt to long distance hitch hiking trips, and my
>> personal network of contacts grew progressively.
>>
>> I did not have a stable source of personal income.
>>
>> In average I lived with 100 euros a month in the first three years,
>> ( through donations of people close to me )
>> and in the last two years on the road, with in average 200 euros a month,
>> thanks to friends, especially Cornelia.
>>
>> Some months I lived with more, some others with less, or no money.
>>
>> I was trying to find other sources of income, as there was no guarantee at
>> all that money would be donated to me.
>> No guaranteed allowance.  And only few potential sources of monetary
>> support on which I did not like to feel dependent, as many of my friends are
>> in a similar situation as me ( without, or with very little money ).
>>
>> I learned to live, as many of us on this list, with very little,
>> yet realize that reducing my monetary costs was also supported through
>> moving every few days.
>>
>> I could not expect from my hosts to feed me, and being a guest usually
>> lasted the time of what I call "a cup of tea" ( a few - 2 to 4 - days ? ),
>> the time for many of the hosts I met to satisfy their curiosity.
>>
>> There was, I feel, also another reason why generally hosting did not last
>> more then a few days : hosts often have their own imperatives in their
>> realities, and my presence often re-questioned the sets of relations,
>> activities and obligations, if not the world view in which often they felt
>> they had to comply to ,
>> except for perhaps a few of them that truly could feel they made a choice
>> in living their lifestyle ( or that where considering making a choice soon
>> ), and that could feel that by supporting me they where supporting their own
>> intentions.
>>
>> I ended up making some very good friends, across europe, some of them
>> being in a similar situation as me, living a nomadic lifestyle, and even
>> when they where sedentary, or "semi-nomadic" , often living with very
>> little, if no money at all.
>>
>> I am aware that it is possible to live with very little money, and
>> experienced it myself,
>> but when it is not in a "nomadic" mode - or "strategy" - , I feel that the
>> forms of "inter-dependency" enabled through a "dependency" on money,
>> needs to be replaces by other forms of inter-dependence and organization,
>> such as "where can I find markets to dumpster dive", "where can I cook",
>> where can I sleep, etc
>> ( sites such as http://trashwiki.org , or hospitality networks to a
>> certain extent, especially in nomad mode ,
>> can provide certain answers )
>>
>> But it is very tiring to be isolated, even when using such tools such as
>> hospitality networks,
>> as most of the time is spent in uncertainty and in a wandering mode.
>>
>> Hence the importance for me of networks of friends.  People that can get
>> to know each other, and build relations between each other.  And the
>> importance for places which can support such self organized forms of
>> organization.
>>
>> Certain existing squats may be such places.  Ecovillages too.
>>
>> Yet for reasons we may discuss more in detail at a later stage, it did not
>> fully satisfy my deeper intentions.
>>
>> For example, I do not want to live in illegality ( what concerns squats,
>> even if I support the idea of reclaiming space - but not with violence ),
>> and I do not want to live all the time in remote places ( even though I
>> enjoy it during certain periods ) or in communities which in many cases
>> close themselves on themselves and that in some cases develop collectivist
>> cultures ( what concerns, for example, certain ecovillages ).
>>
>> I did not want to be in an environment with power structures emerging, and
>> ego's fighting with each other...
>> I try to find ways for inter-dependence through cooperative
>> individualism... enabling the emergence of a distributed approach and
>> participation into creative small scale open production infrastructures" ...
>>
>> Infrastructures which can be ( but need not be ) temporary, can be
>> reproduced, re-mixed, and need not be proprietary.
>>
>> A "commons" enabling inter-dependence between cooperative individualists.
>>
>> For the moment, my main experience of such kind of physical commons seems
>> to be the streets...
>> I try to be receptive to the people that pass by, and learned to connect
>> with individuals with whom I feel some kind of resonance, this enabling me
>> to create new friendships ...
>>
>> -----
>>
>> But I still lack the feeling of "a home", or more precisely, places where
>> I know I can come back to , unconditionally, and where I know friends are
>> waiting for me.
>>
>> -----
>>
>> I realized that often access to inter-dependency, including access to
>> money,
>> is dependent on "recognition" that is given to us.
>>
>> By moving constantly such recognition giving access to increased
>> inter-dependence can be difficult to build up.
>>
>> What I did have access to was a form of inter-dependency empowered by
>> curiosity I could satisfy in the first days,
>> or inter-dependency from intentional networks of friends that I try to
>> build up.
>>
>> After 5 years, I was tired of moving all the time, and felt I could try to
>> come back to Brussels,
>> despite not having the support of my family ( not having a family home to
>> come back to )
>>
>> ----
>>
>> Coming back to Brussels in my mind was part of an approach of trying to
>> re-build a stronger local network of friends, through which shared synergies
>> of inter-dependency could be built,
>> and hopefully, through time, facilitated through increased recognition,
>> potentially also leading to building up prototype infrastructures enabling
>> greater autonomy in reclaiming inter-dependency, at a systemic level.
>>
>> ---
>>
>> So anyway,
>> I tried to come back to Brussels earlier, but without success, as I could
>> not find enough people to host me on a long period of time.
>>
>> My second attempt, last summer, worked better, especially thanks to a new
>> friend Jean-Francois, who hosted me for 3 months at hes place in St Gilles /
>> Brussels,
>> enough time to try to rebuild some new network of friends in Brussels,
>> which could host me.
>>
>> I have been living such a local nomadic life for one year now, with more
>> stability,
>> and at some point, with a little more money, as I could apply for support
>> from social services, getting some 480 euros a month for 5 or 6 months, till
>> they cut it as they did not believe I was "sans domicile fixe".
>>
>> My relation with my mother improved over the last year.
>> It was hard for my mother to accept that I lived such a life.
>> Hard for her to understand why I choose such a life, instead of going into
>> the labor market.
>>
>> I guess this is another discussion - personally I know that I can become
>> depressed if I do not do what is meaningful for me.
>>
>> ----
>>
>> It is still challenging, for any close relation I make, to keep my
>> presence when I feel their expectations and ego's are reacting to an
>> alternative approach, as it leads them to re-question their own actions,
>> lifestyle, and perception of inter-dependency, especially when they feel I
>> may be dependent on them.
>>
>> I know I bring a lot to the friends I make, and to the ones that have been
>> offering me some shelter,
>> but such value is often difficult to recognize, as it is in most cases non
>> material.
>>
>> I also know I can together with others create much more through building
>> up new forms of "more autonomous" inter-dependency,
>> and thats what I continue, year after year, in keeping faith in.
>>
>> This process, which includes writing this email to this list, and
>> connecting with the great work and intentions many of you here pursue,
>> helps me a lot towards keeping faith in life.
>>
>> I know that nomadbases can be one piece of the puzzle in enabling such
>> faith in reclaiming our inter-dependency and offering prototypes which can
>> be reproduced by many more people, without using violence, further
>> developing a ahimsa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa> approach , by
>> Satyagraha ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha - in german :
>> http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha ) ,
>> and the self organization of our time and space (
>> http://p2pfoundation.net/Festivalism )
>>
>> Cordially
>>
>> Dante
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
> http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
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