Some Questions for RV Wannabees

People thinking about becoming RVers have a problem in front of them. Information.

That might sound facetious, since there are so many You Tube videos and old-style blogs available on the topic of RVing. But few of them discuss what really matters. 

Instead, they just talk about their "rig" or about converting their van, because that is how they monetize their channel. "Just click on the link."

The old style blogs show pretty scenery, day after day.

Putting these two traits together, we could say that the propaganda out there assumes that the benefit of RVing is all about relaxing in the sun or looking at pretty scenery, but the main challenge of doing so is finding out where to camp or what aftermarket part you need for improving your RV or van.

How an armchair traveler looks at RVing.

 

I'm here to tell you that this point of view is all wrong.

So then, what "matters?"  Largely it is finding things to be interested in, when the initial euphoria of gawking at scenery has fallen flat. What does it really mean to be "interested" in something? 

What determines what a person is interested in? Should you dive in to your armpits on D-I-Y projects? Or is this just false economy, phony pragmatism, or busy-work? Should you stay busy with crafts? Cooking? Investing and personal finance?

What about reading? Or are most of the books ever written just a waste of time? How many hours a day should you squander on the internet?

Should you seek pleasure or strenuous hardship?

Are your interests just going to be about ego gratification, or will they be disinterested?

If you pursue some recreational sport, how often should you do it, in order to keep it from getting stale? More generally, managing an activity is important if you don't want to kill it with excess repetition.

Is it really possible to have friendships on the road; or is a life of constantly jumping around, injurious to developing friendships? If so, then your activities and interests are going to have to be self-reliant ones. But maybe that will make you feel like a solitary hermit-like loser.

How do you find new interests if the old interests are sagging or not filling your day?

I don't pretend to know the answer to these questions, and the answers vary from person to person, anyway. But I do think they are the questions that matter. And they matter more than photographing another pretty sunset or visiting a "Billy the Kid was born here" museum.

These questions are difficult because decades of serious adult responsibility have removed independence and volition from a person's life. They were kept busy by the System and the endless mindless busy-ness of conventional life. Most of that busy-ness might have been useless, but it had the advantage of saving people from the burden of deciding 'what to do now?' and 'what are they interested in today?'

Or did we learn the answer to these questions when we were children, quite serious in our "play?" Notice the propaganda implicit in this cartoon: all of the children are having "fun," rather than taking things seriously.