Sleeping in a tent
Not many possessions involved
I've spent many years living in tents. Never thought of myself as homeless.
The first tent I knew was a canvas thing that I slept out in with my cousins. The tent was made of canvas and weighed about 40 or 50 lb. Fit in the trunk of a car. The thing leaked in the rain. Fortunately we could just abandon it and go back to our snug beds in the house.
When I hitch-hiked around Europe in 1968 I discovered the security of a warm sleeping bag but tents were too heavy to carry in a backpack. One night I was hitching through the mountains in switzerland in a snowstorm and I came upon a shed filled with salt. Spread out my sleeping bag and slept 'til morning. With a smile - tucking this experience into my memory. (Twas lucky that some machine didn't barge in to pick up salt)
Later my friend Lynn invited me to join him and a Boy Scout on a hike through the BC mountains. Our tent was a big plastic tarp. Lynn showed me a very cool and strong way of tying a rope to a sheet using a small stone. We'd use trees to support the sheet. Worked like a charm. We could sit under shelter while tending a fire in the rain.
The Scouts were being guided by a scout master and Lynn and I were just along for the ride. The scout master got lost and led us into a swamp and then it started pouring rain. Lynn and I were cool - we were dry and warm by our fire. The Scouts were not cool. They had built a pup tent like structure out of plastic sheets too. But they could either be dry in the tent or wet by the fire.
This was the day of the Whole Earth Catalogue and from it I learned about the idea of a pine bough mattress. Lynn and I tried it out. Worked like a charm. Very comfy mattress that kept us above the damp ground
So Lynn and I were comfy - playing chess - enjoying the very beautiful environment.
We couldn't stay there forever. The scout master had to be at a place at a time so parents could pick up their kids or all hell would break lose. So he said 'we gotta go this way" and off we went. Days earlier somebody among the group had caught a grouse and cut off it's head and left it on the forest floor. We encountered that head. I said - OK - we are lost and we gotta stop and figure out where we are.
I said we gotta go up above the tree line so we can see around. I had a topographic map and a compass. Amazingly - a Scout troop hiking through the wilderness didn't. We went up and I was able to establish our positon. From the map I said if we go half a mile to our left we will see a lake that has a trail out that leads to a road.
We found the lake and the trail out. That was a long trail - hard to walk under hot humid sun - lots of up and down but at dusk we got to the campground at it's base and set up camp. The scoutmaster took the youngest among us with him and set off to hitchhike back to civilization so he could contact the parents. Hehe - the guy didn't have very good judgment.
But I lived under a sheet like that for a long time while I was building my little hut in the woods. I had a mattress and a great sleeping bag and a fire pit beside. I had cats. A peak memory is cats snuggling with me in my bag when the snow was falling
Later I had a tent that I used on Bicycle trips. It was very hi tech- very light weight and waterproof in a hurricane and only a few pounds. I came back to vancouver and the only place I could find to rent was in a basement beside a furnace. I set up my tent there.
When I was doing bike camping I was very aware that my tent is not my castle - bears would rip it apart to get at food - I would sling my food in the trees
Tent living is very austere. There's not much room for stuff and you don't want much weight to lug around. The tent itself is a main possession that unfolds from a small package ihto a shelter from the elements. Once I returned to Vancouver after 6 months away on a bike trip to New Brunswick. A friend offered me space in the basement beside a furnace. I set up my tent there and airmatress and sleeping bag. The tent protected me visually from the basement.
Tents are temporary too. When I moved from that basement and took my tent apart the fabric just started falling apart.
I my apartment is not a tent at all - it provides me with heat and power and internet and a door I can lock. It's way more expensive but I can handle that. But it's chock full of stuff that I couldn't throw away and am having a hard job selling.
Thinks back wistfully to my tent.
What do you think ?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.