2021-042 | BLEND, ADAPT & IMPROVISE

WISDOM TRAILS: I teach bushcraft because some people or TV programs taught it the wrong way and a lot of people are convinced of it and caused themselves harm or doing a disservice to the environment. Actually, true bushcraft is not against the environment. It teaches people how to BLEND, ADAPT and IMPROVISE and learn from nature instead of going against it.

 

First seen in Facebook

September 18, 2018 

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BUSHCRAFT, IN WHATEVER TERMS you want it explained, is an activity by an individual or a small group pursuing a livelihood, or leisure, in the outdoors, or in the safe confines of walls and a roof, utilizing methods that are deemed archaic or improvisations using current technology which purpose is to utilize nature, create implements, and/or improve the comfort of living without having to make a great impact on the environment.

When you introduce yourself outdoors, you are creating an impact already. It starts with how you looked and how you smelled. Then it rolls up to your attitude and your body language. Lacking the ability in how to make yourself work for nature results to nature working for you instead. Most people believed bushcraft is about brute force and blades and slash, slash, slash. It is not what it is. You may have watched the wrong TV channel? 

As I wiggled myself into this niche of bushcraft many years ago, I suddenly found contrasts which are for or against the prevailing rivers of opinions from within and outside of it. I preferred best the philosophies of the old masters for these are sweet and golden. I rowed myself further midstream and developed my own which is perfectly explained in just three words: BLEND, ADAPT and IMPROVISE. 

With these, I could navigate easily on both sides without tipping my boat over. With these, bushcraft would stay as it is – bland, boring and invisible – which is to my liking. I do not have to work hard to spread bushcraft here far and wide. I would just be content to share my home-grown knowledge to as few people as possible but that would not be the case. 

The wonders of the internet, with its sensational documentaries without dialogues and equally sensational marketing strategies under the guise of learning videos, had got hold of most people. Their appetite to learn have to be stimulated even more by looking inwards, something that is concrete which can be grasped. It is during this time that they seek local sources of learning.

It is also during this time that I guide people to reality and how bushcraft is properly done, with ethical considerations. And this is where I applied BLEND, ADAPT and IMPROVISE. This simple philosophy is meant to control the excesses of human nature whose penchant for recognition are released in an energy which have given bushcraft its bad reputation. 

Bushcraft is like poetry. It is not fast-paced and has a rhythm all its own much like how nature moved with the seasons. That is why it is boring to adrenaline junkies. It is bland because it does not happen in a few half-minutes. It is required of people with longer attention spans and the keenest observation skills. And this is what I liked most: it is invisible. It does not like company and unwarranted recognition. 

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

Image Nr 1 courtesy of Adrenaline Romance.

Image Nr 2, Nr 3 & Nr 4 grabbed from Lakad Ninja YouTube channel.