The new pioneers?

Pontaubert Burgundy - birthplace of one of my ancestors.

My family roots in North America go back a long way. All but my Cherokee ancestors came from Europe between the late 1690 and the 1850s. They were pioneers, risking everything to start a new life in a strange land. Some even did so more than once, like my Bavarian ancestor and his brother. They moved first to Evansville, Indiana before going again to the very edge of their United States, then in Western Kansas (Fort Scott, when it was mostly just the fort). Others were in Quebec, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Dakota...all when they were still territorial possessions. Back then it was possible to pull up roots, start a new life and own a homestead.

There is nowhere to go anymore. Of course North America was inhabited before Europeans migrated there, but it was arguably much less crowded back then. The modern definition of property, with its plots and tracts, was brand new. The federal government was giving land away left and right, making it the perfect incentive for young families with little to lose. The so called 'American Dream' began this way, with the promise of the freedom to build a life without having to have money. The policy had some dubious intentions (like stealing land from tribes, Mexico, etc...) and yet for hundreds of thousands of young people from all over, the incentive was not racism but the promise of a homestead away from the urban slums of the immigrant ports of entry. It was a tough life, and for many it ended tragically (many of us remember the old Oregon Trail floppy disc game..."Your Oxen Have Drowned During the River Crossing"), but for my ancestors it was a mostly happy transition to the present.

What now? I sit here in Seattle where the old advice of "Go west young man!" rings rather hollow. Follow that advice any more and you end up speaking Mandarin, teaching English to Koreans, or experiencing Tokyo Bill Murray style. The universe for my generation has been placed on it's head. One has to accumulate debt, especially student debt, to earn enough of a living to just get by. Little things...normal things are extremely expensive, and for some reason we need more of those things these days than ever before (cell phone, internet access). Let us not even bring up raising a child. The monetary threshold for being apart of today's society is too high, and far to stressful, while wages and job opportunities fail to keep up. It makes me ask difficult questions: What is it all for, exactly? Is it for the sake of progress? Progress for whom? What do we mean by progress?

It's enough to make someone want to do what my ancestors did. Oh yeah...we're stuck. Perhaps one does not have to leave home to be a true pioneer. Can we do it right here in our own backyard? Maybe it is time that we homestead in our own communities, and build the world that we would like to see. I think that I am not the first person to think this, because I see this happening in many places. When faced with no exit, we cannot escape from our reality, but we can change it.

Possibly, just maybe, we can choose not to play The Game and make up our own. There is precedence for this...each generation remade the world in their own way. We'll just borrow the good stuff from the past and apply it to a future, right where we are, that works for our bodies, hearts, souls and planet.

 - Ben