I have just arrived in the truck at Fell Cabin, Skyland Lodge, Shenandoah Nat'l Park, VA, July 1997

Away from "It All"...      Spent a little time on the mountain      Spent a little time on the hill      I saw things getting out of hand      I guess they always will      --Grateful Dead, New Speedway Boogie

Premise: City life is most assuredly wearing me down.

Hypothesis: A virtual model approximating a place of rest can be constructed, to be visited and developed at will.

Of course, I have only so much to work with in emulating the realism, since my expertise is not as a naturalist but as an electronics engineer. My source material is largely what I have observed on camping and hiking trips to Shenandoah National Park, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  I also run the continual risk of wandering off entirely into fantasy while assuming the role of "Bo", placing something that exists only as a collection of files on a server ahead of real-life consequences that even now would conspire to do me harm. But I still remember from childhood the words sung by the great Willy Wonka, as he cavorted about his own private world: "There is no land I know / to compare with your imagination /.../ If you want to view, Paradise, take a look around and view it".  It is time to get back a bit of the kid I was, when I could spin immense adventures into being with nothing more than a 19-cent Bic pen and a 59-cent Spiral theme book.  The equipment has changed, but not the motivation.

On the path to the Hudson River, FDR Estate, Hyde Park, NY (US NPS) October 1997

Acknowledgements: The disposition I carry as "Bo" on my tours of imagination is inspired in part by Henry David Thoreau's Walden: or, Life in the Woods.  Thoreau realized how superficial and arbitrary one's thoughts can become from following only the ideals that other persons consider expedient to their own ends in business, government, or religious establishment.  He knew instead to listen to the inner calling of his "different drummer".  When I run off to the Cabin, I often sense that I have little in common with the group I call "normal", which I see as comprising at least 70% of the population.  But, after much reflection and time alone, it also becomes apparent that others must play a role in every life.  They are not to be ignored as a matter of principle simply because part of their plan for existence is, on its face, frivolous.  Since 1997, I've adopted the currently-popular view that when I can reduce the content of my thoughts and actions to those of my "authentic" self, the practice notably embodied in Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance®, I can have participation in society while remaining apart from those affairs which, upon my careful consideration, appear superfluous and unwarranted. In the "authentic" version of myself, there is a place for the others.  As a final note, I should like to distinguish myself from "FC"'s Industrial Society and its Future.  I would not seek overthrow of an allegedly fatally-flawed social and economic system, but rather an understanding of what it is about humans (of which I am undeniably one) that makes the status quo work so well, why it is preferred and endured by so many, and how I might play my best part in its onward progress while still "wearing it as a loose garment".

Cabin Particulars

• From months of writing the Diary, certain things are now very familiar. Here's some of what you'd see, after driving up the long dirt road from town.

 
• Includes the Cybercabin Terrain Topographic Map, whose creation has been my personal alternative to the better-known Sim City experience.  I'm working on finding good clickable links to the diary to add to the image.

 
• I've also used the topographic map to generate a VRML world, though it came out looking slightly funny.  Take a walk up the hollow and catch the view from the Summit.

The Cybercabin Diary

Miscellaneous meditations on miscellaneous topics, as they occur during "Bo's" experiences at the Cabin and its immediate surroundings.  Typically, analogies and contrasts to real life difficulties appear in features and happenings of the Cabin's environment.  Often I find myself drawn to Scripture and Christian teaching.  I try to post a 700 - 800 word update every 4 days.
 
• This month's Diary Entries

 
• Diary Archives

 
• An Outline of Themes

 
• As they are reflected in Diary observations (subject-based index to the Diary)

 
• Summary of Outline:  [1] I often feel an immediate need to get away from [2] a style of urban living that is deficient in a number of ways.  [3] A more simple and authentic lifestyle would be an obvious improvement, since I must conclude [4] that I need to live in society, with others, and cannot run away for real.  The character of "Bo" is free to run away whenever he wants to discover what he can in the woods.  He will experience renewal and conversion where possible, then return.  There is an uncanny parallel, I've found, to the book of the Old Testament prophet Jonah, who also runs in vain yet ends up doing what is right.

My Initial Inspiration

• It started one night, in real life, as a most stirring dream...

Project Start Date:  7 August 1997

Comments to:  bo@bo-hemian.com

To my real life home page--Raymond's Document