Taken by the Wind » America

How Do You Define ‘Home’ When You Live Out of a Suitcase?

Reannon Muth — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:24:15 +0000

Photo Courtesy of "I Am Not I's" Flickr photostream

Finish this sentence: Home is…

For me that answer isn’t an easy one. I was born and raised in Hawaii, finished high school and college in New York and have lived in 10 different cities in five different countries since then. I currently live in Las Vegas. While a part of each of those places has felt homey in its own way, I have yet to find a piece of the planet to lie the ‘ol welcome mat down on (at least not permanently).

But according to Sean Bonner’s post “Where is Home?”, that doesn’t matter. My home is planet Earth. Period.

Here’s an exert from his blog post:

“There is a whole group of people, Global Nomads, Technomads and Permanent Travelers who don’t live anywhere, but at the same time live everywhere. In the same way that people are drawn to the idea of “home,” I think that the ability to call the whole world home is just as romantic, and equally if not more attractive.”

He also mentioned that he sees this as the ‘natural progression of things’ and that as individual society’s move further into one big global society, everyone will eventually have lives spread across dozens of cities and several time zones. Living out of a suitcase will be the new normal.

I like that idea. Instead of feeling lost or inadequate for not having that elusive ‘home sweet home’, we nomadic souls should instead view ourselves as simply being a little ahead of our time.

Future Travel Plans: Montana or Arizona?

Reannon Muth — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:56:02 +0000

I found a ticket from Las Vegas to Phoenix, Arizona for just 26 dollars (round-trip!) and another plane ticket from Las Vegas to Bozeman (which I know sounds like the capital of a small eastern African country but it’s actually a city in Montana) for 80 dollars (round-trip).

What I need from you, dear readers, is some advice. Where should I go?

Something to consider is that my guy friend and I will be:

A. Only able to go for a max of three days and

B. Visiting in February

Montana

Photo of Bozeman, Montana by Art History Images

Youth hostel: 26 dollars per night (Sheesh! Expensive, no?)

Plane ticket: 80 dollars (RT)

Things to do: Skiing, Montana Grizzly Encounter, Pioneer Museum, Museum of the Rockies, Hotsprings

Phoenix

"Washington Street, Phoenix, at night" by Gwilmore

Youth hostel: 15 dollars per night

Plane ticket: 26 dollars (round-trip)

Things to do: Pub crawl, Mystery Castle

Mystery Castle by Media Fury

While researching for quirky things to do in Phoenix, I discovered the “Mystery Castle” which is neither a mystery nor a castle but a 1930′s house made out of salvaged junk and auto parts. It has 18 rooms and 13 fire places. Tours are just five dollars.

Well? Whatch ya think?

Imagine if You Could Start Your Own Country…What Would You Do?

Reannon Muth — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:35:23 +0000

"Carte Au Tresor" by Tonton Copt

There are people in the world that for whatever reason, have started their own countries. Some of these countries are located on abandoned platforms in the ocean, others on man-made sandbanks and at least one is located right here in the US, (on 1.3 acres of land outside of Reno, Nevada). Most of these ‘micro-nations’ as they’re called, aren’t officially recognized by anyone other than the people who’ve started them but still, it raises an interesting question: What would you do if you could start your own country from scratch? What requirements would you have for those wanting to become citizens? What laws, if any, would you put into place? Where would you want this country to exist?

Entering Molossia by Ryan Jerz

Of the items not allowed into the Republic of Molossia (a mirco-nation in Nevada), for instance, are incandescent light bulbs, walruses and anything from Texas. Passports are required upon entry into Molossia and all visits must be pre-approved by the president, Keven Baugh. The country has a constitution, a national flag and even a national anthem.

My friend and I are planning a trip to there sometime in the next few weeks. It’s about a seven-hour drive from where I live in Las Vegas and being that the country has no hotels, we’ll probably stay in Reno (the capital of Nevada and the closest major city). I have to write their government and request permission for a three-hour visa first though.

Although it may seem unbelievable, judging from the videos made by former visitors and the country’s official website, the president of Molossia as well as the country’s two other citizens (one of which is the First Lady) seem to take their ‘smallest republic in the world’ status seriously. You can watch a promotional video for the country as well as a clip of a tour that was filmed by the Chicago Tribune.

I love this idea. I think that if I were to own my country, I’d want it to be on a tropical island. Meditation classes would be required in all of the schools, as would petting zoos and animal therapy sessions. There’d be a free, volunteer-run massage booth on every corner and community gardens in every neighborhood. Every weekend would be a three-day-weekend, the first Monday of every month would be declared “National Bring a Desert to Work” Day and every house would come with a built-in hot tub. Coffee would always be free.

Dicky Days by Samuel Sharpe

What would your country be like? Would you ever seriously consider creating one?

Here’s the trailer for a documentary entitled “How to Start Your Own Country”. The film (which I have yet to see) features a number of micro-nations and explains how and why they were created. Pretty fascinating stuff, no?

No related posts.

Halloween in Sin City

Reannon Muth — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:02:04 +0000

My friend recently joked that unlike guys, girls have it easy when it comes to choosing a Halloween costume.

“Girls just wear their underwear and bunny ears,” he complained. ”Or their underwear and angel wings or their underwear and devil horns.”

That was certainly evident last weekend when I attended what is widely considered the wildest and most risque Halloween event in the country: The Fantasy and Fetish Ball.

Held in an arena at South Point casino in Las Vegas, the ‘ball’ featured, in addition to stilt walkers and acrobats, a mechanical banana ride, strippers and fire-jugglers whose bra’s spouted real fire. Of course, being that the word ‘fetish’ was in the event’s title, there were also a number of sideshows involving whips, chains and naked people hanging from the ceiling.

And while as my friend had expected, there was no shortage of girls in their underwear, I wasn’t one of them. I decided to buck the trend and go as the little mermaid.

Me as 'Ariel' from Disney's "The Little Mermaid"

What about you?

Where in the world were you for Halloween?

Raising Risk-Takers

Reannon Muth — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:26:31 +0000

While reading on the beach this morning (I’m back in California for the weekend) I spotted a two-year-old girl running towards the shoreline.

“Bethany!” screamed what I could only assume was the girl’s mother. “Nooo!” She grabbed Bethany’s arm just as the little girl was about to plant a sneakered foot into the salt water. “That’s dangerous!” The mom scolded, carrying Bethany back towards the beach blanket. “You could have been knocked over by a wave!”

Bethany and I both looked from her mother’s panicked face, to the calm bay behind her and seemed to share the same confused thought: What was she talking about? The ocean was as smooth as a lake! And the only “waves” were so small, they couldn’t knock over an inchworm, never-mind a two-foot-tall human being.

The only logical explanation was that Bethany’s mom was insane. But at least according to a study conducted by Play England, fairly average, as well.

The study found that parents nowadays are more risk-adverse than ever before. So terrified are these parents of skinned knees or scraped shins that 50 percent of children in England are not allowed to climb trees and 17 percent are forbidden from playing tag. As the study revealed, children’s play these days is mostly confined to indoors or to supervised outings at the playground.

Kids on Bikes by Jon Tunnell

Apparently encouraging children to take healthy risks has become a thing of the past. Forget mud pies and dodge-ball, some parents won’t even let their children play outside alone, period.

This may prove to have a damaging effect on the next generation of would-be entrepreneurs. As Simon Woodroffe, a judge on the BBC show Dragons’ Den told The Sunday Times, “We need to encourage children to push themselves, to go beyond their limits, in order to build a nation of bold and confident people.”

Goin' Surfin' by Lars Ploughmann

And in a small village in Wiltshire, England, at least, parents are taking the necessary steps to do just that. In what the owner claims is England’s first “outdoor nursery” students at this preschool spend the majority of their day learning and exploring outside. They build forts and fires, learn how to count using rocks and bugs and make obstacle courses out of logs. While none of them are forced to remain outside, most of them chose to, coming inside only for lunch or snack time.

People have marveled at how the school’s concept of outdoor play is such a unique and novel educational approach, but as the school’s head teacher, Sue Palmer, points out, her methods are hardly new. The fact that her school is considered unconventional is just shows how “sterile” and restrictive society has become.

Tree Climbing by Clemens V. Vogelsang

”My children know stinging nettles sting and that brambles are nasty,” she explains. “They know that fire is dangerous. Some nurseries say ‘Let’s go indoors, it’s raining’. But we say ‘Come on, let’s go and splash in the puddles.’ “

I love this idea. And it’s no wonder; I was raised with much the same philosophy. When I was young my mother would drop me off at the bus stop with nothing more than a few dollars, a bus schedule and instructions to find my own way home. “See you in a little while!” she’d call out through the station-wagon window before leaving alone in a cloud of red dirt. I was 10.

While occassionally I’d day-dream or sleep past my stop and several times, found myself trudging for 45 minutes along a winding stretch highway long after dusk, I quickly developed the sense that no matter what problems I found myself in, I could trust on my own intellect and strength to navigate my way out of them.

My mother has since commented (jokingly) that she ‘created a monster’ and wishes she’d placed a little less emphasis on self-reliance and a little more on self-discipline. I don’t think she ever imagined that I’d take my independence and run with it (literally) half-way ’round the world or that I’d feel so empowered I’d move abroad and then never come back (to date, I’ve lived in five countries).

I don’t have any children yet and it’ll be interesting to see if my opinions on this change once I do, but I think raising children to be brave, independent risk-takers is the greatest gift a parent can give. Because eventually kids are going to fall and they’re going to get hurt, no matter how many shin guards and elbow pads parents’ bundle up their bundles of joy in. It’s a part of life. So why not have them learn how to be resilient while they’re young? The falls will hurt a lot less when their five then when they’re fifty.

After Bethany’s scolding, she eye-balled the water with a newfound apprehension and stayed several sand-castle lengths away from it for the rest of the morning. I imagined that a few years from now she’ll stand crying and screaming on the edge of a pool while her mother and swim coach try to coax her in. “Bethany!” Her mother will exclaim in exasperation. “What’s the matter with you? It’s just a pool!” By then she’ll have forgotten entirely about that one morning on the beach. She’ll be clueless to the fact that her attempts at keeping Bethany safe have in fact, kept Bethany chained to a lifetime of a fear.