Walking About
Is anyone familiar with the concept of a walkabout? Generally attributed to the Australian aborigines, a walkabout is basically a period of time spent away from human contact, typically in the desert; the aborigines use the Australian Outback, sort of like Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under (one of the best movies I've ever seen about a man, his rifle, and a bat shit crazy woman).
There was also a great scene in King of the Hill one time when John Redcorn recounted the story of his vision quest to Hank; it included him wearing an American Indian headdress and an Alamo Beer T-shirt after deciding that there had to be more to life than snagging groupies for members of the '80's hair band Winger.
I have to admit that, while terrifying, the prospect of a walkabout has always been appealing to me. The basic gist of it is that it's supposed to teach you about yourself, make you independent, force you to survive on your own, and generally be good for the soul. The closest I've ever come to a walkabout was my two week sojourn in Scotland, Ireland, and France; I traveled alone, but was still around people, and somewhat accountable to other people during the process (for example, the people who I stayed with in Orkney and Paris). I'm drawn to the idea of a walkabout in the same way that I'm drawn to the idea of ascetism: I'm fascinated by it, but I don't know that I could ever actually work up the desire to actually go through with it.
What I could work up the desire to actually do, however, is learn to shoot like the character of Matthew Quigley in the aforementioned Selleck film. Seriously, Tom Selleck is almost as much of a man as Anachronism is a wannabe roughneck.
And if that doesn't tell you anything about either, you obviously haven't been paying attention, so nothing I can say will clue you in sufficiently.
There was also a great scene in King of the Hill one time when John Redcorn recounted the story of his vision quest to Hank; it included him wearing an American Indian headdress and an Alamo Beer T-shirt after deciding that there had to be more to life than snagging groupies for members of the '80's hair band Winger.
I have to admit that, while terrifying, the prospect of a walkabout has always been appealing to me. The basic gist of it is that it's supposed to teach you about yourself, make you independent, force you to survive on your own, and generally be good for the soul. The closest I've ever come to a walkabout was my two week sojourn in Scotland, Ireland, and France; I traveled alone, but was still around people, and somewhat accountable to other people during the process (for example, the people who I stayed with in Orkney and Paris). I'm drawn to the idea of a walkabout in the same way that I'm drawn to the idea of ascetism: I'm fascinated by it, but I don't know that I could ever actually work up the desire to actually go through with it.
What I could work up the desire to actually do, however, is learn to shoot like the character of Matthew Quigley in the aforementioned Selleck film. Seriously, Tom Selleck is almost as much of a man as Anachronism is a wannabe roughneck.
And if that doesn't tell you anything about either, you obviously haven't been paying attention, so nothing I can say will clue you in sufficiently.
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