As silly as it sounds, I never planned on spending the night in Poole’s Land.
Even though I knew we were going there to immerse ourselves in the wild BC commune—for a documentary that I’d insisted we do—I had no desire to actually sleep on site. Why? Well, my aversion to things like the outdoors, and in particular “rustic” toilets, is well documented. But I did spend the night, and several days at Poole’s and I’m glad I did because not only did it force me to stop being a prissy little bitch, it gave me some much needed perspective.
When I initially travelled to Poole’s in 2017 for a print story, I had no clue what to expect. What I found was a strange, beautiful social experiment—a commune of free-spirited people living on 17-acre, thickly forested property in Tofino, arguably one of the most stunning locations in Canada. “The end of the road” as locals say. Perhaps because it is so far removed from the rest of the country, Poole’s attracts some pretty fascinating inhabitants—drifters and dreamers, many of them young people rebelling against capitalist ideals and conventional social norms, others just looking to get high on LSD and surf.
And so, now more or less drinking the Kool-aid, I headed to the outhouse. You’ll have to watch the doc to find out how that went, but I felt like I had climbed my mountain. My indoctrination was complete.
I travel fairly often, both for work and pleasure, but I’m always happy to come home. Even though I’m not originally from Ontario—I was born and raised in Vancouver—Toronto feels like home to me now and I feel a sense of relief when I’m back here.
But something strange happened when I got back from Poole’s. I was genuinely sad. It wasn’t just the post-vacation blues that we all experience. And it wasn’t only because I missed my newfound friends, although I did. I missed the freedom I felt there. The freedom to act like a total weirdo and have no one give a fuck, or better yet, encourage it. The freedom to not be online constantly—or at all—, to not have to deal with an increasingly out of control inbox. And the quiet—the quiet that had felt eerie to me on my first day—I found myself craving. The morning after I got home, there was a loud dump truck doing god knows what for hours outside my apartment. I got on the subway and everyone was zombied out on their phones. I went into the office and everyone was just… the same.
The experience made me realize that perhaps there was something missing from my life that I didn’t even realize I needed. It showed me a different way of interacting with each other and with nature. It’s doubtful that I would ever go full smoothie and live in a place like Poole’s permanently. But like the occasional mushroom trip, a dose here or there could be just right. (Just kidding, I hate mushrooms.)
Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.
Sign up for the VICE Canada Newsletter to get the best of VICE Canada delivered to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on VICE CA.
from VICE https://ift.tt/2PQkvlF
via cheap web hosting
No comments:
Post a Comment