xjx has pretty much summed up why my spouse doesn’t want to leave Civilization, and so why I cannot leave Civilization, either.
Lately I’ve had this strange kind of fantasy, though - where I’ve got a small “Tribe” I’m with, and we’re completely nomadic, moving from place to place, squatting national parks, etc. - roaming south during the winter (until we can accomplish thriving in cold climates), and meandering back up north in the summer. Maybe pulling off some ELF or EF! stuff as the mood or situation suits us… (everyone needs a hobby). But we’re always on the move. Sometimes it seems really possible, like all I have to do is walk outside and not go back - that if I take that first step, others will follow me out and we’ll begin just like that. Other times it seems like just a pipe-dream - like some romanticized cloud-9 crap that’ll get me McCandle’d (not to be insensitive, but I genuinely fear that fate for myself). So I think that’s probably the real thing keeping me enCiv’ed more so than anything else. The last thing I want to do is externalize my own cowardice onto the person I love most…
But we’re working on it, both of us. We’re constantly building steam, and working on our skill-sets, even if they’re in extreme infancy at the moment…
~ SW
PS: I’m with you, Django. I’m a big fan of all sorts of music that is pretty much incompatible with tribal life… but that’s kind of the beauty of it, really - we get to make new music with new instruments that we invent that other people can feel the same way about…