The novelty of the new year is only starting to dawn on me. Last year was amazing; ecstatic and sad in equal measure, like any satisfying novel or credible cosmology. This year started with an unexpected blast in the face: a week of wilderness survival training in southern Florida. Not of the 'me alone against nature' school, this approach emphasizes the acquisition of primitive/ancestral lifeskills over grin-and-bear-it privation and endurance. Its aims are far-reaching and total--providing one is ripe for conversion, the experience is nothing if not transformative. On the mundane, pragmatic level, its lessons will enable you to park you car and walk into Nature's green veil without a knife, food, water or clothing and 'live lavishly', or so the instructors like to repeat.
Read the rest of my article on the experience over at 3QD. The place is called Tom Brown's Tracker School, found here.
Some other good articles on the School and the man have appeared in Outside and the London Times.