Essential things are required to have a camping trip. There’s the tent – obviously, the cooler of drinks, food, the sleeping bags, and those smelly citronella candles. One thing I cannot do without is the campfire. It’s the main thing that you and friends sit around while listening to each other talk about the past or discuss the way things have changed.
Just the act of going out into a forest in the middle of nowhere and escaping from everyday life is indulging. Who cares about your boss or gossip when you’re hiking a trail and the only thing around you for miles are trees and animal life.
Its enjoyable to go camping with friends and go carp fishing (with your carp rod pods) or swimming in a nearby lake – you don’t have to update stupid Facebook statuses or keep tabs on the latest disaster that’s happened in the world. Your scope of reality is narrowed to what you’re currently doing and what you plan on doing later – which is passing out back at the “campsite” and palling around with friends.
And it comes back to the campfire – this primal thing that entertains us. You can stare into the coals and watch as they turn from red to gray. It’s your chance to think about your current place in life and where it’s going. It might be a little “tacky” with the whole return to “nature” motif. As if nature is supposed to reconcile our difficulties and problems in life with its soothing presence of birds and trees. It works for people, and I happen to be one of those people.
There’s a simple pleasure in the act of sitting in a cheap folding chair just staring into flames in self reflection, hey – to each their own.