By Ethan Maurice | December 17, 2020
I was interviewed last week on the CEDAR Weekly Podcast by musician and artist-lifting host JJ Shafe. Our wide ranging discussion included subjects from death and long walks to the sense of wonder and the supreme value of commonplace books. It was a grand time.
Fellow riders on spaceship Earth,
May I introduce to you the ‘In This Together’ Bumper Sticker — a symbolic reminder that we are literally in this together, residing on a tiny blue-green ball of life miraculously afloat in the void of space.
One night, in a flash of inspiration, the whole thing: idea, phrase, and image, just struck me.
“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.” - Terence McKenna
Last fall, I was struck by understanding in an old, crowded diner in Nevada City, California. I was seated in a booth across from Ed Buryn, author of the 1971 travel classic Vagabonding in Europe and North Africa. It was an important moment in which golden wisdom was grasped.
I want to tell you about it, but first some backstory.
Once a year, I host ‘WONDER WANDER,’ a multi-day gathering of creatives, adventurers, and all other sorts of fascinated-fascinating humans out in nature. We share, we laugh, we hike, we stargaze, we philosophize, we dive deep, and relish in this crazy experience of being with one another.
WONDER WANDER 2024, was the 5th go at throwing this grand "experiential potluck," built around a dozen or so humans all offering an experience for the group. And it was surreal and loving and interesting and learned and rad.
I cut the video from this year’s wonderwanderers spontaneously filming with an old vintage digital camera I brought this year — and love the feeling conveyed through this beautiful sliver of moments we captured.