Tie your shoe laces, look both ways, keep that action open, come to a complete stop, finger off the trigger, double check that, cut away from yourself,  the list goes on and on. I was raised well by any standards to be aware of the right things to do in life, the right steps to take in order to be successful or efficient. My father is a great teacher in these things. Especially financially. “Save, invest and compound!” he would say over and over to me. Teaching me that you don’t get ahead by being in debt and to plan ahead for future expenditures foreseen and unforeseen. These teachings have served me well.

Managing my money wasn’t really something I had to worry about until I was about 8 years old. I think my weekly allowance started around $1. And that was after the laundry list of chores were completed to their rigorous military specs.

This is just one example I am using but my point is that essentially my whole life I have walked the straight and narrow. I haven’t really skewed from it almost at all. Which I would believe by today’s standards is pretty rare. Only in the past few years have I even peeked out from that little box of a world I was living in and did a few things that would be considered out of character by people that know me.  I’ve been scrimping and saving in order to buy a house more recently in the volatile housing market of Southern California, and guess what? Now that’s out the window too. At least for now.

I’ve done a great job setting up my life to be a “good” one. Whatever “good” means anyways. I’m pretty tired of the office life. I would see my coworkers more than I see my own family. I would spend the majority of my waking hours at work or commuting to and from it on crowded LA freeways where the grim reaper hides behind the faces of thousands of souls that could care less about my body and well being. I couldn’t tell you how many times and how frequently I dodged death or something damned near close to it. People would sacrifice your life and limb just to change lanes and get to work 5 seconds faster. Is this what I am living for? Society tells me this is the good life, but is it really?

Well I’ll tell you, my little piece of heaven is the outdoors and a rifle on my shoulder, clean air, clean fresh food and clean water.

Have you ever flown back into LAX and as your landing you can clearly see the layers of smog you’re entering so thick and viscous  you’d swear the plane is floating more than it is flying? It’s disgusting. And yet we live here day to day and we don’t really give it too much thought. Travel to a far off place where the air is still pure and almost entirely untouched and you’ll be able to see and feel how much of a difference there is. When I traveled to Namibia I kept catching myself taking deep breaths of cool clean air. I didn’t really notice it at the time but I looked back shortly after and it hit me. My lungs were in love!!!

Sometimes a little bit of crazy is just what we need in our lives. My tank has been running on empty and it’s time for a harsh and sudden pit stop.

-The Jonny