Isn’t it amazing how despite all our technological advancements as the collective human race, we still yearn to take things back right down to the bare basics and engage in activities such as camping? I mean seriously, if you look at for exactly what it is, all that it is is temporarily giving up all the amenities you work hard to be able to enjoy, just so that you can brave the outdoors, heat up any water you need in more of a primitive manner, give up a solid wall and roof with which you fight the elements, prepare your food in a manner which takes much longer than it ordinarily would, etc. So what’s all the fuss about camping if all it really seems to do is take one back into time an age or two?
Fulfilling a Hidden Human Need
That’s exactly it – camping fulfils what has become the concealed human need for independence and the ability to do things yourself. In the overly economic world we’re in effect forced to live, providing for yourself takes the form of going to work, which for most people means enduring all the “pains” which come with honouring your eight-to-four job, or nine-to-five in countries like the United States.
If you really come to think about it, is there anything we still do for ourselves these days? If you want to eat, you rely on what’s available for sale in and around your town. Your choice in food is limited to what your local grocery store has on their shelves, or whatever processed food is available at the convenience store. If you want to cook a wholesome meal, you still have to visit the market or a vegetable store to stock up on ingredients which you didn’t produce yourself, and in many instances ingredients of which their origins you’re not even aware.
How do you feel when the power goes out, or even if your internet connection is down? These days you can perhaps manage to connect to the internet (via Wi-Fi or through a mobile connection) wherever it is you go, even while out camping, but the point is that camping feeds man’s desire to take control of his own being sometimes and just to get fulfilment through simple acts such as perhaps hunting and preparing your own food (and gathering) and pitching a tent (even if it’s one of those quick-assembling ones you just whip up out of a zipped package).
There’s nothing quite as therapeutic as building a fire I’ll tell you and watching the flames burst back to life while you prod it and add some wood to keep it going is far better than spending the afternoon watching the telly, every so often. Just try it out for yourself and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
