Do Dry Boats Dream of Solar Mermaids? Alternative human-ness in a synthetic world

Ann Cognito
Sep 7, 2021
3 min read

Skoro will wait for spring perched on her keel with no water except the ice and snow reminding her of where she belongs. What do dry boats dream of?

Do they dream of warm waves, fish tickling their keel, and sweet anchorages? Do they dream of new bilge boards and solar panels, and the stories to be collected in their log books?

Do they wake up in terror of the possibility of dead seas?

The weather that seems crazy this year will be missed when next year is more extreme. I’m more afraid of staying, for all my reasons. I also cannot imagine how I could ever face the Earth again if I don’t. I’ll go. This matters to me and I think makes some difference in the world.

Meanwhile, much to the surprise and/or dismay of many, at not at all surprisingly to a lot of others, I’m looking for somewhere to camp for fall and winter.

Yes, I’m open to other doorways, but I’d like to camp if I can. Weather hurts like heck, but living indoors and in populated and developed places does too, just in different ways. I have too many intolerances, and too many issues. Those things can hurt too much, too.

That’s part of why I always wanted to live this way, and want it even more now. Living this way has pains, but less of the other things. In some ways, it’s more manageable. I’d be a wreck if I was in a city right now.

I wake up to see water and trees and sky. The world is still there, and it’s still alive, and so am I. Leaves are photosynthesizing, or sap is laying dormant like amber till the sun warms it again. The clouds are different than they used to be, but they still do their best to carry water and shade and wind. The ground is full of the sounds of nearby roadways… but if you listen deeper you can hear spreading roots and life.

And the water — water IS life.

Elements have sounds. So does the Earth itself. The Schumann frequency is the basic vibration of the living planet. It’s been changing. Science says so. Indigenous peoples confirm it. Sensitives feel it. Most of us know in some way or another that very large things will never be the same.

It’s uncomfortable. Maybe it’s easier not to know.

We learned to be comfortable without being connected to the elements, without being present to the planet or part of her patterns, and without being mindful of these things. We spend a phenomenal amount of time, effort, and money actually trying to negate or escape the geological and meteorological aspects of this planet, our home.

We do need things like shelter, and for various reasons we need more… but we also need to understand ourselves as each being a crucial cog in the workings of the global ecosystem. We need those things we do without or take for granted. They may have seemed optional or replaceable for a while, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Studies show how things which connect us with the natural world, even urban gardening and daily walks in parks, affect the brain and the psyche tremendously. It grounds us. It adjusts our perspective. It makes us feel good. It connects us with the world… and we miss that, in a profoundly basic way.

I have C-PTSD and have had it most of my life. I manage it much better than I used to, but it’s made me odd. I need those connections even more, and sometimes I need to pull the world around me like a blanket, or a promise.

I need to be as much part of it as I can be.

I fall asleep hearing (or feeling, it doesn’t matter which) the sounds of life. I feel the planet. I will probably curse the cold more than a few times, but not being cooped in and disconnected and fighting intolerances all the time keeps my belief in life and possibilities alive, and keeps my will to make a difference alive.

I’m not choosing homelessness. I’m choosing a larger home.

I’m not asking you to live in a tent. I’m asking you to live with intent.

If enough of us can reconnect deeply enough, we can change what it means to be human, and that will change the world and the future.

With hope and determination,

Ann

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I’m grateful if you intend to help…

Sporadic and one-time support through Chuffed, at

https://chuffed.org/project/climate-emergency-sailboat

Ongoing support via Patreon (I’m still having trouble posting there, my apologies), at

patreon.com/climateemergencysailboat

Thank you… your help means the world to me… and updating the budget/maintenance log/needs file is still on the to-do list