CURRENT MISSION

To find the most innovative, ethical, and ecologically sustainable communities and programs in the country!

ABOUT ME

I quit my job at a school in February, and have been a bit of a wanderer for the last few months. I took a 10-day Vipassana silent meditation course, I lived in a remote ecovillage in Missouri, and now I'm experimenting with hitchhiking around the country. Slowly building up towards larger and larger adventures.

I have a strong sense of duty and a lot of ambition about the future, but right now I my best option is to put myself through many adventures, challenges, and experiments, in order to learn what it most important to me and build up the strength and courage necessary to birth something new and bold into the world. So, that's the grandiose version :)

PHILOSOPHY

"The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing." I am a very ideology-free sort of explorer, trying to be very open minded about how to see the world. I'd like to understand and accept reality just as it is, with a minimum of imposed frameworks, beliefs, or presuppositions. I find myself agreeing a lot with Buddhist philosophies.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am new to the Couchsurfing community; I have heard very consistently from friends that it is a great service and they always have good experiences. (I should really find their CS profiles and add them as friends). It seems like an ideal way to get a foothold in a new place, and to meet like-minded travelers. I look forward to being a host, once I settle down a bit and actually have an address again!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None so far!

Interests

Wilderness - backpacking - travel - writing - photography - sustainability and conservation - innovative and ethical business, like B Corps - philosophy, especially Eastern - meditation - music - books books books.

• writing
• books
• photography
• meditation
• traveling
• music
• backpacking
• business
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

I've been reading a lot of social commentary and utopia books lately. Huxley's Island, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Other favorite authors include Vonnegut and McCarthy, and poets such as Rumi and Hafiz.

Movies - Hitchcock is great. Miyazaki is essential. I like mindbenders such as Eternal Sunshine, Adaptation, and Inception. Scorsese, Kaufman, Wes Anderson - anything by them. Oh and Coen Brothers! Really, anything with a good script and some good visuals.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I hiked Half-Dome (17 miles, 8000' elevation change round-trip) completely barefoot. Just because.

Teach, Learn, Share

Can teach skills: wilderness travel, photography, writing, consensus decision-making, spoken rhetoric, negotiation and compromise, how to organize your life.