ABOUT ME

I love nature, being outdoors, exploring, hiking, going on adventures, meditating, making the world a better place, helping people, learning, compassion, peacemaking, gardening, music, planting trees, dancing, and maybe some more stuff that I just haven't discovered yet.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I believe in reversing the capitalistic trend of "transactionalization" of human relations.

What does that mean? Well, for thousands of years, humans have interacted in thousands of ways that don't involve the exchange of money. People do things simply becuase it's automatic and natural. For example, if you were traveling through a new and strange land, you could expect hospitality from the local people in whatever town you arrive in. It's still like this, in some parts of the world, like in the Middle East, and places on the Silk Road. A long time ago, everyone believed in Couchsurfing!

But with the advent of capitalism, everything becomes "transactionalized." That means, activities that used to be done naturally and automatically, now require the exchange of money. It's not only with traveling and hospitality, but EVERYTHING. For example, we used to raise our own children - but now, child care is something you purchase, with money, at a day care center. We used to take care of our elders - but now, elder care is something you purchase, with money at a nursing home or care home. Do you simply want to socialize with your fellow humans, in a festive atmosphere? Well, it's becoming increasingly illegal to gather in parks and play music in the evening - and so if you want a gathering, you must go to some bar, club, concert hall, or other "venue" to officially "purchase" your access to socializing. There are many more examples. Everything that used to be natural is now a transaction. And the more "modern" a society becomes, the more this trend advances.

The reason for this is the Central Banking system. In the early 1900's, the United States created the "Federal Reserve", which is a fraudulent banking system, wherein the bank doesn't "lend" money, but rather CREATES money. This is explained in this Youtube video, called "Money As Debt":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nBPN-MKefA&pp=ygUNbW9uZXkgYXMgZGVidA%3D%3D

And since it creates money, the "money supply" is constantly increasing. As it increases, it causes "inflation" - the decrease in value of the money - because there's more and more and more of it. And the only way to prevent this inflation effect, is to increase the number of "goods and services" that the newly created money can "match" to. In other words, if you create 10 billion new dollars, you must also create 10 billion dollars WORTH of new goods and services (if you want to prevent the money from losing its value). The new money can "match" to the new goods and services.

And that means the economy must continue to find new things to produce, or new services to provide. And since the invention of new technologies can only *partially* cover this, the discrepancy must be filled in by "cultural cannibalization" - the converting of natural, automatic human relations that DON'T require money, into "transactions" that do require money.

A mother who raises her own baby is not creating a "service" that costs money, and is therefore not fighting monetary inflation. But a daycare center that raises the baby, for money, IS creating a "service", and IS therefore fighting inflation. Likewise, a human showing hospitality to a traveler creates no transaction, and therefore doesn't fight inflation - but a hotel that charges guests money IS fighting inflation. Get it?

And so, our entire economic system is designed to convert nature and human relations into monetary transactions, as much as possible. It's designed to facilitate cannibalization of everything good and normal and natural. It's clearly an evil system, and it must be resisted and defeated! And one of the main ways in which we can contribute to this effort, is by "de-transactionalizing" - by converting transactional relationships back into natural ones.

And couchsurfing is one way to do that.

So...
I don't care whether you're interesting. I don't care how many stories you have. I don't care how well you can entertain me for the night. I don't care whether you're just looking for a free place sleep. That's fine if you are!

I don't care whether you read through my entire profile or not. I don't care how well you can pretend to be curious about me and my life.

If all you want is a couch to sleep on, that's totally fine! My house is your house. That's the point!

By giving you a gift, I'm helping to spread love and raise consciousness. That's a compensation in itself.

Interests

Enjoying nature. Meditating. Exploring. Yoga. Reading. Just being surrounded by fresh air and trees makes me happy.

• animals
• design
• graphic design
• dancing
• human rights
• yoga
• running
• meditation
• gardening
• reading
• tv
• blogging
• music
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• teaching
• law

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Catching a wild bird in my hand...
Making a roadtrip/adventure across the continent, exploring the wild west, on my own, for four months, despite my friends and family back home telling me to stay home and watch TV with them all summer...
Tubing down a local river near my house...
Looking down into the Haleakala crater in Maui...
Nighttime in northern Canada, with the clearest stars I've ever seen...
Hiking up the Jade Dragon Mountain...
...and more yet to come!

Countries I’ve Visited

Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Laos, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, China, Thailand, United States

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