I don’t hang out much with furries in the physical world but now and then I go camping with them. Welcome to Kettle Moraine State Park in southeast Wisconsin. I had never been to this park before so I was excited. I brought my good camera, the tripod and I was ready to take some pictures! I had heard that the place was very photogenic.
Then the weather changed and the low temperature dropped by 10°F and I wasn’t paying close enough attention so I didn’t even bring gloves. Even worse when I realized that I had forgotten my sleeping bag I was already two hours from home and a 4 hour round trip wasn’t worth bothering my friend who had already spent 3 hours on the road just to get us there. So, I just borrowed an extra blanket. Still, three blankets in a summer tent wasn’t ideal and one night I woke up several times just too cold to sleep. Well, it was either the cold or the fact that I kept hearing noises around my tent. I later found out that the campground was haunted by two feral cats. Despite that, nothing was ever disturbed in the morning.
Man, these campgrounds are nothing like where I used to go camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains. If you left that much food out you’d have half the bears in the state all passed out on the picnic tables when you woke up in the morning. You’d have no food left but you’d have a lot of fat and happy bears. Camping here is downright lazy by comparison. Of course, if I had forgotten my sleeping bag in the Sierras, I’d be snuggled up with one of those bears by morning.
We were always careful with our food in the backwoods campgrounds and the only time we ever had a problem with a bear was when one went through our campsite at about 2 a.m. while everyone was asleep. We always kept a picnic table in the center of camp, and we’d leave a lantern burning on it so no one would stumble into the firepit on the way to the pit toilet—or vault toilet, as people call them here. Suddenly I get awakened by what must have been a noise. I open my eyes and I notice this huge silhouette on the wall of my tent. Then, without warning, something just bumps into my tent enough to compress the wall and move the cot I was laying on about an inch. Then, without any further noise, the shadow moves off and I eventually go back to sleep.
That was a long time ago and now here almost 30 years later two of my 3 camping buddies from back then are long dead. I miss those crazy bastards but I learned a lot of useful things from them, like never let a Navy SEAL near a fire when they’re relaxing. They’re likely to set themselves on fire, or at least your food.
I still like camping and I feel that it is important to get away from your normal now and then. Okay, sure, not everyone needs to go into the woods and freeze their tail off for 4 days but hear me out.
A little hardship now and then prepares you for the unexpected.
Look, I’m a lazy old cat and I like my air conditioning, heat, flush toilets and all the rest of our modern conveniences but I understand that all of that can go away in a flash. We see it often enough, power goes out for weeks after storms, water supplies contaminated, food shortages, being stranded for days on the road due to mud slides, whatever. One of my biggest fears has always been being stuck in an elevator for a day or two. Seriously, it’s true! I still on occasion have elevator nightmares. I still go on elevators though.
My point is that we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones a little, once in a while. It helps us be more resilient, teaches us to be creative and think outside of our typical ways of doing things.
A few years ago I read a really boring sounding book about the connectome, the part of the brain that few people ever think about because it’s boring. It’s not the grey matter that everyone loves because it’s the interesting part that does our thinking and storing of memories. No, it’s the white layer that carries messages from point A to all other points, it’s the information superhighway in your head. Believe me.
In the book the author tells the story about song birds and how each bird has a different song. Everyone who has ever learned a little about birds knows this. What people may not know is that the bird’s brain fortifies the path that generates that song to the point that it is impossible for the bird to come up with any other song.
Birds that modify or use many different songs don’t develop this hardened pathway because they are constantly changing the parts of their brains that generate the songs they sing.
People’s brains work the same way, though I don’t think any of our connectome gets nearly as hardened as the dedicated songbirds, but the less we vary our activities, the more hardened we become in our ways and therefore, the less changeable we become. This makes us less adaptable to our changing world.
So, think about doing something different. You needn’t join us furry-butts out in the woods on a cold early May weekend, just find something you can do that is within your limits. Even if it is trying a new recipe, a new restaurant, a different way home, walking backwards or all of the above at times, just not all at the same time.
Keep your brain alive and learning. You will live longer, healthier and maybe even a little happier.
Despite my little misadventure with forgetting the stuff to keep me warm, the weekend was great. I was able to talk to some really cool people who I’ve never met before, see some old friends and went on a little 9 mile walk in the woods that turned out to be a bit more hilly than I expected.
We discovered a guestbook about the middle of the trail so we signed and my friend signed me in as, “Itico was here.” Awesome.
It ended on a really beautiful day and I was glad to see yet another park in this state which is still mostly new to me even though I have lived here almost 20 years.
I look forward to the next park, next year. Hopefully I will remember to stay warm.
