Hunting and Gathering

(From late March)

I was talking with someone last night, and out of my mouth came this theory about how we are evolving as a species, back into hunters and gatherers. More specifically, the elements that are hard wired in us to make us good hunters and gatherers – those elements are being called upon again in a time of rapid change, constantly shifting circumstances around home, work, and basic survival. It occurred to me that there really is something primeval and animal-like about the way I, and anyone else who has been touched by this great recession, has been living. Of course it looks different, but the basic impulses being employed, I think, are the same as those that made our ancestors successful at hunting and gathering.

I may have a skewed perspective. I mean, not everyone - in fact, few - of the people in my circle of friends, have experienced the kind of continuous change that I’m often engaged in. Back in 2005, I moved to Marin County for a job working for a nonprofit organization. I had been unemployed for several months, after serving briefly as Deputy Director for a rather dysfunctional Statewide nonprofit in the midst of a leadership meltdown. I was laid off after the new Executive Director squandered our precious last dollars and drove our account balance to ZERO. A few weeks earlier, I had managed to stop this gent from paying a consultant $3000 to create an employee handbook for us, noting that “we’ve got two employees, you and me…We can make our own fucking handbook, dude.” Now I was doing some freelance writing and nude modeling for artists, to supplement my unemployment checks. I had very little cash on hand for the move, and I found a woman on Craigslist that was offering a room, in exchange for handyman work around her home. That got me on the ground in Marin, and within a couple of weeks, I had arranged to rent a room from a friend. As it turns out, over the course of the next year, I lived in three different places. That kind of change is not ideal, but it taught me some things about being able to travel light, and execute change. At some point, feeling quite the nomad, I acquired a cohort of plastic bins, labeled them according to their contents, and on subsequent moves, simply reloaded the bins with their appropriate contents. It was highly efficient, but what’s more, I think I was utilizing my inherited gathering instincts.

The earliest theory is that indigenous humans did more scavenging than actual hunting. Updated theories say that in fact, early tribal man was quite skilled at cultivation of land and livestock. I know one thing, I have found my scavenging instincts to be quite sharp in recent months. Indeed, I have gotten really good at finding free stuff, and I think doing so is a great antidote to American culture. It’s something of a blessing to be forcefully disengaged from the treadmill, and so it is that some of us out here have gotten pretty damn resourceful in ways that we might not have imagined five or ten years ago. I have become an avid user of an online group called FreeCycle, where people give stuff away. Several months ago, I found myself a toaster oven by posting a request with my friends on Facebook. Within just a few hours, I was able to “repurpose” a toaster oven that had been in a friend’s closet gathering dust. It’s really amazing how much free entertainment is out there - I have been to three free movie screenings in the last month or so. As well, I can testify that there are all manner of completely dignified ways to happen into cheap yoga, free food, and discarded household items.


Now, hunting on the other hand, is significantly more taxing than gathering, a bit more dangerous, and I dare say, without guarantee of success. I went on a job interview a few weeks ago for a position with a small nonprofit nature center. Dare I say that it’s high time I moved myself into the “for-profit” sector? They were in leadership transition of course, and yes, funding transition as well. I sensed a fairly high level of anxiety present in the Executive Director, and the Development Director, who were both interviewing me. At some point, I expressed reservation about the fact that the position featured no minimum hours per week, making it not quite an on-call position but pretty stinkin’ close. What I got back from my prospective supervisors was a 15 minute spew of subtle complaining about the way that their jobs were in flux, and the unclear road ahead for the nature center as a whole. While this did inspire my compassion, it did not inspire my confidence, or interest level, and I passed on the position.

Obviously, this generation of professionals sees the world very different than my father’s generation did, in terms of job security, loyalty to The Man, and one’s ability to settle into a situation. My dad worked the same job for 29 years, and would have worked another 5 if cancer had not killed him. It is well documented that most people my age have gotten used to changing jobs, and careers, and a great many have embraced the freelancer’s life, out of necessity.

I personally have had a resume at the ready for the last several years, continuously updated, locked and loaded...like a tactical missile, poised to fire off at the first indication of trouble. This is, according to my theory, my little caveman hunting gene kicking in. I have certainly become a networking hound, unabashedly contacting old friends, former colleagues, and even women I have dated, to gather professional leads. It is hard not to see myself traveling the professional landscape in warrior pose, spear drawn back, ready to take down a caribou. Of course, this time around, I’m trying to avoid striking on the slowest caribou in the herd.