PP #31: Building Our Utopia

Project: Pioneer #31, April 28, 2024 Sunday 12pm

We’ll never have true utopia in this life (I’ll explain why later), or be free of problems, but we can build our best version of it with a little effort. That’s what we pioneers have been up to, both here at our encampment and for the country at large.

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. Audio podcast at Substack, Apple, and Spotify)

In this journal post:

• Updates: Building Almost-Utopia at Home

• Societal Utopia (Politics)

• Spiritual Utopia (Spirituality/Afterlife)

• What’s Next?

Updates: Building Almost-Utopia at Home

We’re fully settled into our new woodland home, and just working on the finishing touches. The sewer is complete! The new site was a good choice. Neighbors on one side are quiet, on the other side hardly ever here. Yesterday I rebuilt the brick firepit enclosure and expanded our small garden fence to give us (and Pia!) more room. We have the huge awning out, bedecked with blue lighting on our White House home (see photo above). It’s soothing. Like the pioneers of old, we have to be highly tuned to the weather. If wind gusts will exceed 20mph or so, the awning has to come in, or it could be ripped away.

Today I need to shore up and complete the fence line, finish it up, tidy up the woodpile area, and give little Pia a nice bath. We’re thankful for her love every day, and the joy she brings to our lives. The schedule will be released today for my favorite free outdoor concert venue and we’re going to the live reveal. I can’t wait! It will allow me to geek out on the summer schedule and finalize it. After that, I usually set up a countdown timer to all the events I’m looking forward to. It’s quite therapeutic, and a good way to get past any stress or bummer periods. I think about the good times ahead with Giavana, my kids and grandkids, and stress melts away.

It seems to come in waves lately, problems on top of problems like some kind of coordinated assault, the evil about us these days. There’s the huge personal matter I detail in the paid posts, and this week will be active in that area. I’ll post in a few days to update. The only way to get through it is to battle, forge ahead, solve and eliminate, and always remember it will get better. It always does, if you persevere and stay confident and balanced.

The internet install guy came by on Friday and was just blown away by all of this. “You live here, like full-time?” He couldn’t get over it, didn’t know it was a thing, and couldn’t wait to get home to talk to his wife. We have to remember moments like that, and how lucky we are.

Last night after I was done, I finally built a fire and sat empty-minded to simply enjoy it. Pia nestled on my lap. Soft classic rock music from my favorite station, low enough to enhance but not ruin the mood, made it perfect. It was a few hours of pure bliss, no problem could pierce that protective bubble. This is life.

Societal Utopia (Politics)

When I was relaxing with loving Pia on my lap, it was incredible to think that the Governor of South Dakota (Kristi Noem) just bragged about slaughtering their puppy (because…it was acting like a puppy, “full of joy” in her words) by shooting it in their gravel pit. Then, how how her daughter came home from school and asked, “Where’s Cricket?” Of course, she allegedly did this to impress the truly heartless Republican front-runner and bolster her odds at getting picked as his VP. What kind of evil monsters are these people who are trying to end our democracy?

Last night at the White House correspondents dinner, comedian Colin Jost made a point about decency. It’s an important word, and concept. It’s an important thing in a functional society, and for any chance for it to be anything close to ‘utopian.’ Why have so many people allowed their values to be perverted in such a way that they would consider decency to be bad, or woke, or anything but good? How has the “F*ck your feelings, snowflake” gang become a thing? It’s very hard to understand, other than, again, these are the folks who are gaslit and then led like sheep to a 24/7 life where they’re always taught to be angry, to feel like someone is taking from them.

It’s like that old fable of the king whose castle was being besieged by angry peasants who were tired of having everything taken from them by the elite class. They were outside the castle moat with torches and pitchforks, about to storm in. The king’s advisor said simply, “The solution is to convince the pitchfork people that the torch people want to take away their pitchforks.” And that, dear reader, is who the true enemy, the evil super wealthy (not the good ones), those in power and control, are manipulating a vast swath of this country.

The Trump thing got started when Steve Bannon went to him and convinced him he could win the Presidency by dividing America. Much of the work had already been done, the gaslighting anger already instilled by paid right-wing propaganda like The Rush Limbaugh Show. Bannon was right. It worked. This is what led to the speech Trump gave when he came down that golden escalator, stating that Mexicans and other immigrants were rapists, murderers, coming for what’s yours, whitey. Of course, overwhelmingly, immigrant crime is almost non-existent. Don’t hate. Don’t be played.

It’s terrifying and surreal to hear the Supreme Court actually sit there entertaining the idea that a President could assassinate his rivals in an “official act” and not be held accountable. How can this be? How can someone who has undeniably, clearly, indisputably led a lifetime of fraud and crime, be actually in the running for leader of the free world, against a guy that’s Casper Milquetoast squeaky clean after over fifty years of service, and a huge record of accomplishment in his term so far? Especially when the former guy actually, undeniably, is responsible for the excessive deaths of hundreds of thousands American loved ones, on our soil, after lying and mismanaging the pandemic?

How is it possible that people are still tuning in daily to get their “news” from a network (Fox) that has had to pay almost a billion dollars for lying to them, and has been exposed in their emails and texts for considering their viewers to be stupid for actually believing what they’re saying? Who are the foolish sheep here?

Get involved, make a difference. Giavana and I are settled here, so we’re starting to ramp up our efforts around the election in November. We’re going to fight hard for our kids and grandkids. We’ve joined a democratic advocacy organization and our little group of volunteers is growing. We’re going to make a difference, and do the best we can to deprogram those who might be willing. That’s our effort to build a semi-utopia here in America. You know, like they have in those democratic “socialist” countries like Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, the happiest countries in the world.

Spiritual Utopia (Spirituality/Afterlife)

The only true utopia is likely in the afterlife. As I’ve said in my many previous posts, the only thing that makes sense to me is that this is a testing ground, an incubator of sorts. We are placed in this life as beings with built-in flaws and temptations, such as greed, lust, envy, and so on. How we evolve and manage those temptations are the measure that qualify us to pass into that utopia in the beyond. If we’re not fully formed yet, I believe we’re placed here yet again (reincarnation). This life is the womb and primordial ooze of our spiritual existence.

Keep in mind, this all started with Adam and Eve and that failed experience with temptation, right? We’re tested every day. God observes, God does not intervene. Pray all you want. It’s up to you how things turn out. This explains how one person can stand outside a school shooting proclaiming that God answered her prayers by sparing her child, while so many other grieving parents nearby ask why God didn’t answer their prayers.

God knows it’s all meaningless in the end, as this life is but a blink, and we’re all together for eternity in the end. Then, we understand what this was all about. So, be good. Be decent, Be kind. Be forgiving. Do all the things we were clearly told to do in the Commandments and Beatitudes. Help those who are less fortunate. Welcome the immigrant. Punch your ticket early.

What’s Next?

Giavana is working hard on the dual citizenship for us, so we have options should the worst happen in November. This week we should be out of the “turn the heat on in the morning” freeze and into the “complain about the heat and humidity” phase of the seasons. The temps are supposed to hit the 80sF! I can’t wait, but Giavana isn’t a heat/humidity person. I’ll send that post to paid subscribers in a few days with updates on my other, more personal struggles and how I’m dealing with them. This pioneer journey continues… Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact! Too many of you reply to us personally, share the love with the Project: Pioneer community :-)

"I think religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, and spirituality is for people like me who've been there." — Megadeth's Dave Mustaine

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