A hunter will enter into the woods, generally, with one of two outfits - camouflage or bright orange. While the camouflage serves the purpose of, well, camouflaging, the orange serves the purpose of being noticed. Both outfits are useful for their particular purpose but are donned with a different mindset than what I mean when I discuss "absorption".
As I enter into the woods, I most often are wearing browns and greens. I am not doing so to blend in, like a hunter. I'm doing so as not to "blend out". I have no desire to stay hidden, rather my desire is to become as one with my environment as I can.
During my last trip to Africa, I would sit out upon the street-walk and watch the bustling urban locals go about their business. It is a pure treat to witness the fluid movements of a foreign locale, the street vendors peddling their goods, the businessmen rushing to their office, the children running down the walks, and the friends walking casually together down the street. You get used to watching this, it feels so natural to your eyes! But then a figure enters the scene, a tall man with high shorts, pleather sandals, and bright pink fanny pack (stuffed to the brim), a tucked in double pocketed light blue adventure shortsleeve button-up shirt, expensive binoculars hanging by the neck, outrageous sunglasses, and an off-white wide brimmed hat.
I want to puke.
The A-Typical tourist doesn't know any better. Western culture has taught the world traveling tourist to wear, for some incredible reason, this ridiculous outfit. We all have seen them before. This person, unlike the secretive hunter, has no wish to be hidden. Unlike the hunter wearing the bright orange, this tourist does not wish to certainly be seen. Instead, they are just ignorant to what I call absorption.
Naturally I will not wear the exact same clothes the locals do when I travel, for the most part. However, I will try my best to simply blend in to the environment, so that if someone else were watching from the street-walk, (as I so often do) I will be but a small blip on their radar as I pass by. A foreigner, yes, but little else of consequence. It's not out of fashion that I pick my garb to accomplish this - it's out of respect to the primal aesthetics of the landscape, be it urban or nature.
I dont want to "blend out". At the same time I dont necessarily want to blend in. I want to show respect.
Whether its the ocean, or the desert, or the jungle...I feel this is an important step in not becoming an ignorant adventurer.
ABSORPTION
This is loosely the first post in a series I will be penning concerning adventurology (my study of adventure).
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