Wanna Talk About Nuts? Let’s get nuts:

“That’s crazy!”

They always reply the same when I tell them that I’ve been walking since El Paso, TX.

However, this response makes me stop and think; is crazy not doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

Walking across America is far from doing the same thing over and over again. Each mile, unless you’ve walked it before, is a new one; each flower, insect, bird, animal, and person, is new; every photo or conversation from it, is fresh.

Nothing is done over and over again when you do it this way. The people, the places, the languages. All of it changes with each hectare.

In this way alone, it isn’t crazy to do. Besides, people work day-in, day-out, drink, eat, and sleep, relatively the same each and every day. A great many may wrongly expect that they’re secure in this routine.

Yet, if one were to ask almost anyone in America today, if their home, family, and employment, are secure without a doubt the response would be: “no.” The insecurity is obvious when passing through any town and city. So how many would say that they’re safe from the inequity of the American economic system? Again, none.

These questions don’t need to be answered; we see today that mental health, gone without care, is as detrimental as cigarettes. Depression grows rampant in every community but the statistics are harder pressed to those struggling with income, housing, or friendships. And to this last point, we find ourselves less surrounded by friends, and more surrounded by faces and followers; more alone than ever as our world focuses on polarization.

So what’s really crazy? Reading the horrors of reality online and doing nothing, hoping that it will be proven false, or magically resolved? Maybe even, ignoring or shutting out these facts?

Or is it crazier to attempt reducing one’s need for the goods or services aggravating these issues while searching for another way through? While documenting what’s still here. While searching for solutions. While limiting opportunity to be a perpetrator of accidental harm.

I obviously chose the latter. It seemed less crazy to try something new, something scary, and try to be a better, more self-reliant person. Especially compared to the insecurity of today, it seemed like the sensible choice compared to doing the same thing over and over again.

Here, I want to point out what’s really crazy, who’s perpetrating the insanity, and how we can collectively see to our mental health, metaphorically, as well as in the most absolute reality.

When they say “that’s crazy,” I’ll be sure to hold up a mirror before replying: “Perhaps, but how much compared to what you see here?”