JP from Wild Bayou

[Erratus Animus]

JP from http://wildbayou.com/just left my house and let me just say this guy was super nice. He drove an 1 1/2 just to so me how to pressure flake and wanted nothing in return. He is a humble guy and was very polite and easy going. I enjoyed his company and we could all use more ppl like him.

After his kindness I had to return the favor some how so thought I would just share my experience with him.

[your_comforting_company]

Sounds like you had fun and met someone who might be able to help you with some of those elusive "backward thinking" projects!

so I guess the question now is.. Did you learn anything?

[your_comforting_company]

...We separate this program from our self-reliance program because life should not be a struggle for survival. Here we offer the student a deeper connection for living with the earth. Our ancestors did not have to struggle to live, and neither should we.

I already like the guy...

[Erratus Animus]

YCC I told him about you and that he would prob like you . His tool set was a rock , homemade ishi stick and a piece of antler.

[Justin Case]

I already like the guy...


Our ancestors did not have to struggle to live, and neither should we.

They didn't ?

[your_comforting_company]

It's a mindset thing...

I guess it depends on your definition of "struggling".
rather than argue the point, I'll take that question as a rhetoric

[Justin Case]

It's a mindset thing...

I guess it depends on your definition of "struggling".
rather than argue the point, I'll take that question as a rhetoric

Yeah, I guess he just meant that they were very good at doing what they HAD to do, things we modern people would consider a struggle :)

[Erratus Animus]

The point is that I thought he was a nice guy and was glad to have met him. Hope his School and show does well. Dont know anyone that I never met before that would drive 1/ 1/2 hrs and not except any pay just to help a newbie Knapper out. Aces in my book since action speak louder than words and so far his action speak well.

[sthrnstrong]

Struggling back in our ancestors time was a lot different than in our time. IMO

[your_comforting_company]

hunting, fishing, foraging, making love, making fire, no set schedule, no bills to pay, no "job" to attend. Sounds like heaven to me, instead of a struggle.

for me it's a struggle to get up at 5 am, force myself to endure 12 to 14 hours of intense heat and humidity in the bald scalding sun on 5 hours of sleep, working my fingers to the bone-and-blood, only to turn around and dish out all my earnings to obligatory bill collectors and retail stores, eeking out a meager existence and worrying how I'm going to get through the rest of the week.... That's a struggle.

It's a mindset and largely a cooperative effort. Sure, life was dangerous, but it was not a struggle.
None of my neighbors or friends elect to help me with the garden, or tanning, or fishing for a "community food bank", or anything else of that nature. Instead we single ourselves out and make the entire 'struggle' our own, rather than becoming the fully functional multi-organism that tribes and villages used to be.

every cell in your body has the same basic program... dna. Doesn't matter if it's a toenail or an eyeball; sure they are all different, just like people, but at the core they all have the same desire to live, function, and reproduce, and be productive members of that greater organism. This is called "associative".
People of modern days are "dissociative" and we think we are supposed to do it all, all by ourselves. Rogue. Like cancer.
United, we are like livers, and kidneys, and brains, all connected to the same center.
Divided, we are just amoeba's.

(guess it's one of those days for me to rant.. sorry again!)

[crashdive123]

EA - sounds like a wonderful experience. Looking forward to seeing some of your knapping work with your new found pressure flaking experiences. He sounds like a very cool guy.

Not to sidetrack your thread, but most knappers I have met (which isn't all that many) or more than happy and willing to share what they know. Sounds like this guy went a step beyond that.