BajaNomad - Baja Immersion

Baja Immersion

Osprey - 6-11-2014 at 07:48 AM

Immersion? Not Really.

I can’t imagine the ways living here in old Mexico has reshaped whoever, whatever I was before I arrived. Twenty years here against a total of fifty seven years in the U.S. might be a reliable gauge but I can’t remember a single incident or cultural U turn, collision or skirmish that brought me to this newer and more restrictive moral platform.

It’s in my face now as I am repelled from things I see on the internet, television; news about senseless random homicides on U.S. streets now shock and offend me. Comedy TV shows that spew out foul language and bathroom humor chase me to the news. Bad grammar and stupid, sloppy production practices ruin many news shows for me --- the news faces are poor actors and actresses who look perfect in every way. They are painted and sprayed and glued together --- they are perfect for “Show”, they are at their worst at “Tell” because producers never learned English while Make-Up people have heart and head and genius enough to make Frankensteins look like Snow Whites.

I’m not a religious person so I keep asking myself lately “How come you are suddenly repulsed by what you used to lap up wholesale when you were younger? What the hell does getting old do to a man that makes him abhor what he used to love?"

I was an avid hunter --- deer, chucker, dove, quail, coyote, etc. and had all the equipment and knowledge to be successful in the field. Now I turn off the TV when the varmint hunters program comes on. I still fish for sport and a little for the table but can’t abide watching “The Deadliest Catch” kinds of shows.

So I’m forced to conclude that if it’s not my age, some unexpected or inexplicable reformation, then it must be my life here in this quiet little Mexican village. My slow and easy lifestyle finds me unused to the strident sounds of people in conflict; unaffected by modern big city rat race vulgarities, minute by minute unvarnished reminders of venality, hatred, bias and violence.

Down here I love to watch the small flocks of dove and quail feeding in my garden and splashing in the fountain. When I came south, when I gave away my rifles, pistols and shotguns I did not know that years later I would lose my zeal for the hunt, that I would feed and protect the birds I used to kill and eat.

I could never have known how this new quiet life would forever soften my ways, temper my erstwhile petulance. By example the villagers have taught me to have more patience and restraint. When I mix with my gringo neighbors it whisks me back to my stateside persona and in some ways I have a feeling of being left behind, a little out of the loop. Thanks to the Internet, the great “Leveler”, we all have access to the same unspeakably deep pool of information; otherwise they would view me as a walking, talking anachronism.

Whenever I wish, I can turn off the machine, leave all the knowledge behind, retreat to the comfort of the clan, to the quiet, timid and soft place radiating from the very center of my galaxy ---- my primitive but comfortable woven palm hammock under my palapa. There I can drink some almost freezing Pacificos while I wonder about absolutely nothing and fall further behind in the curve.

[Edited on 6-11-2014 by Osprey]

Udo - 6-11-2014 at 08:01 AM

Bravo...Well done, Jorge!

I consider Baja immersion a change of life that I wii have to assimilate one way or another.
However, I have already spent so much time in all my travels as well as my home in Bahia Asunciòn, that I already consider myself immersed in language as well as lifestyle.

It is only my closest of friends, both Latinos and Gringos, that know that I am as much a Latino as the local residents are (since I was raised in Venezuela), and Spanish (or in my case Castillian) was my second language, and English is actually my last language.

Thanks for your enlightenment of what the Baja lifestyle is all about, Jorge!

blackwolfmt - 6-11-2014 at 08:05 AM

WORD,,peace osprey

MulegeAL - 6-11-2014 at 08:24 AM

Immersion? In the "oven" of baja!

Living in baja just keeps peeling the layers off of your onion, so to speak, and exposed your self to you, to who you really are, and that is a good thing to do. Let it happen. It is happening to me as well.

It is getting harder (for me) to find that onion-peeling process up north, many seem to have lost their way, there are so many vain and wasteful distractions. It take energy to keep this worthless stuff away, to shed it from my life. We have so much wealth, yet so little that really matters.

To share a cold beer or two with a ranchero who's lived off the grid for all of his 71 years in a palapa is gold. He has it made; has his dog, beat up truck, grandkids, a place and purpose on the desert landscape.

To cook a whole yellowtail on the beach with extended baja familia for a birthday is gold, to watch the sun go down, and awake anxious for its return at dawn is the gold that I seek.

You are a lucky dude to have found yourself, what matters and what is fluff.

Hoy! Uno mas Pacifico por favor!

Osprey - 6-11-2014 at 08:32 AM

Al, I don't talk or write in sentences, they're chapters. You do a lot better using the right (and fewer) words. You remind me that I might have said "Guess who I ran into in a little fishing village way down in Baja?" "Me."

sancho - 6-11-2014 at 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Osprey

I am repelled from things I see on the internet, television; news about senseless random homicides on U.S. streets

I suppose this comment is not appropriate here, but saw a
stat yesterday that got me. There have been 72 school
shootings since the Connecticut incident. I'm no gun
control guy, but something seems to be wrong. The Pres
of that Seattle College, said after that tragety, 'we live
in a world that is broken'. I'm behind you a few yrs.,
getting older one often becomes
a bit pessimistic, may not be aviodable. Osprey you are not alone in your thinking.
Sitting under a palapa idea keeps me going. I may not make
it as far so. as you are, but expect to be somewhere so.
of the border in the not to distant future

Skipjack Joe - 6-11-2014 at 11:53 AM

Osprey,

You're turning into a hippie. Pretty soon it will be hair down to your shoulders and walking in sandals. Tie dyed clothing is not far behind.

Seriously though, I do think that television programming has really gone south. There is nothing to look forward to from the main channels. Some of the newcasters on Fox look downright ****tish. I can't understand (a) why they were chosen and (b) the choice of makeup. Is the goal to deliver the news or arouse the viewer. I find myself watching public television and sports, and that's about all.

mtgoat666 - 6-11-2014 at 12:41 PM

different strokes for different folks

i could never live in the sticks without breaks to enjoy the urban jungle.

i could never live in the urban jungle without breaks to enjoy the sticks

i want it all!

Udo - 6-11-2014 at 12:59 PM

You are right on within the perspective of the current US TV standards.

If you, for example, tune to a British broadcast news (BBC) you will see an entire perspective of a story, not just a few seconds worth. Same thing in Latin America as well as Europe.

The only thing I look forward to are a couple of TV dramas NCIS and NCIS New Orleans, Football, and now the hokey finals...and that is only because there is a local team involved, otherwise I would not care about hockey.

Quote:

Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
Osprey,

You're turning into a hippie. Pretty soon it will be hair down to your shoulders and walking in sandals. Tie dyed clothing is not far behind.

Seriously though, I do think that television programming has really gone south. There is nothing to look forward to from the main channels. Some of the newcasters on Fox look downright ****tish. I can't understand (a) why they were chosen and (b) the choice of makeup. Is the goal to deliver the news or arouse the viewer. I find myself watching public television and sports, and that's about all.

bajaguy - 6-11-2014 at 01:20 PM

Joe

Which newscasters on Fox are you referring to???

Quote:

Skipjack Joe - 6-11-2014 at 02:20 PM

Golda Meier. What are the chances of someone like that ever be elected to presidency? Not in this century.

Kgryfon - 6-11-2014 at 02:22 PM

Osprey,
Your essay made me verklempt, and I'm not even Jewish.

And then this (Skipjack) made me laugh! You are both absolutely right.

I am looking forward to when I can start the phase of my own journey that takes me out of the rat race. It will be intersting to see who I morph in to.

Quote:

pauldavidmena - 6-11-2014 at 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Osprey
You remind me that I might have said "Guess who I ran into in a little fishing village way down in Baja?" "Me."

That's the ex-pat dream right there. :cool:

Osprey - 6-11-2014 at 04:49 PM

Thanks Paul, you gotta be fortunate enough to have small, utile baggage or things might go sideways.

Here's an example:

Attachment: Anything Sylvia Wants.doc (30kB)
This file has been downloaded 185 times

pauldavidmena - 6-12-2014 at 06:12 AM

Osprey - that's a great story. Have you published it anywhere?

ehall - 6-12-2014 at 08:42 AM

That story made me laugh, thanks.

4x4abc - 6-22-2014 at 05:32 PM

what is that television thing you all talk about? Same as TV?

durrelllrobert - 6-22-2014 at 06:35 PM

Me thinks that most of us have become Vidiots. :lol:

BajaBlanca - 6-22-2014 at 06:49 PM

Udo, what was your first language then?

Osprey, TV has me down in the dumps too - so much negativity. When you go for a couple days without watching the news and suddenly are bombarded with deaths here and war there and starvation most everywhere - well, I begin to wonder what this world is about.

That being said, I adore watching movies and since we have the cable package which includes many American movie channels as well Brazilian, Italian and French television channels, I get to watch many international flicks. They are so varied depending on the language/culture. This part of tv I really appreciate.

Marc - 6-23-2014 at 06:17 AM

Well....being a leg man I love the Fox news channel