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How do I learn to enjoy the outdoors? I'm not one of those city people who have never seen a cow irl. I spent all my childhood summers in rural backcountry, in the nature, seeing the wild, and I just don't see what part of it is supposed to be enjoyable. I don't hunt, I don't like berries or know that many mushrooms so foraging isn't a full-time thing, I don't enjoy woodworking, and I can't see myself farming or keeping livestock. Unfortunately, my wife wants to move there, into the rural nowhere. She hates living in the city as much as I hate living in the assfuck middle of nowhere, and we both deeply hate suburbs. So there's no option available where one or both of us isn't miserable, and after four years of living in the city, she still hates it, so it's my turn to give her idea of "the good life" a try. My wife keeps talking about having a small hut in the middle of absolutely nowhere with solar panels on top, growing/foraging/hunting our own food, going completely off-grid and never seeing another person ever again. Cities are busy, vibrant, flickering, changing, there's always something new to look at. Trees are just trees. The only way that trees will stop being trees is by dying and rotting. Everything in the wild is the exactly same every day, never changing, only slowly rotting and dying. No part of being stuck in one place for the rest of my life to rot and die feels appealing to me. I don't delight in nature. If you've seen one tree, you've seen them all. In cities there's cars, buildings and people, each one slightly different than the last, always changing and something new happening. The only wildlife I really enjoy watching are jackdaws, which prefer cities as much as I do. The only thing I can think of to do in the middle of nowhere is to wait until I get to go home. I don't know what else I would do if I was stuck there permanently, other than wait for death. So how do I learn to enjoy the backwoods?
Anonymous
Anonymous
Very elaborate if it's bait I think you just need a better mindset, it seems like you have a negative view even before you get here. There's plenty to enjoy outdoors, maybe it's just an acquired taste for some. Maybe start fishing, or pick up photography idk find your thing You probably should try to find a balance with your wife, like have an apartment in the city and a house in the countryside not too far away. I know people who've been doing that for a while. Now the wife doesn't even go to the city house anymore, she lives full time in the countryside since COVID.
Anonymous
Anonymous
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>>2408800 I know it's a mindset problem, that's why I'm asking how to change my mindset.
I've been fishing before, and it's definitely one of those activities that I can politely endure while waiting until I get to go home. I do art, but I'm bad at photography and sketching from live models/landscape, I hate seeing perfection right in front of me and not being able to capture it perfectly.
We can't afford more than one residence, we're living in an one-room rental apartment right now (which neither of us is bothered by, having a small home that's easy to maintain and keep clean is splendid), and if we buy some plot of land and maybe some shack that's attached to it, that's probably where we have to live.
I don't like being without her and she doesn't like being without me. Living separately is one of those options where both of us are miserable.
Anonymous
>>2408791 It’s not for everyone. But I can say, there’s nothing I like more in the mornings than sitting on the patio with coffee and just listening to the birds and trees in the wind.
To me being in a city full of noise and flashing lights and shitty people is hell. Constant over stimulation makes us dumb and neurotic- unplugging and slowing down is the cure for clown world.
Anonymous
>>2408791 >My wife keeps talking about having a small hut in the middle of absolutely nowhere with solar panels on top, growing/foraging/hunting our own food, going completely off-grid and never seeing another person ever again. God, she's dumb af. Don't be a pussy and tell her that she don't live in a disneyland
Anonymous
>>2408816 I don't like the silence in rural places. It makes me want to scream just to drown it out.
>>2408822 No, I know her. the only way to convince her she's wrong about something is to let her try and see it didin't work.
Anonymous
>>2408791 I grew up in the woods. I feel at home there. surely you have some nostagia for rural areas if you grew up there
Anonymous
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>>2408880 The nostalgia I have are for the childhood games we played. Once I got old enough to lose interest in playing pretend, I had nothing to do there.
Anonymous
>>2408791 If you don't like it don't fucking move there
Anonymous
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>>2408929 There's only bad options and we have to pick one, and I'd be just as miserable on my own in the city as I would be with her in the woods.
Anonymous
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>>2408791 You can't "learn' to enjoy nature. You either like it or you don't. I am a hardcore misanthrope who likes to maximize my time away from other people. I go /out/ in nature because the alternative is being stuck in my house 24/7/365. I don't do cities and I don't like spending ANY amount of time around other people. This lifestyle isn't for everyone and that's fine. Just don't force yourself to do something you don't like. And get your balls out of your wife's purse already. She sounds more masculine and based than you.
Anonymous
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>>2408791 Basically your brain's fried by modernity OP, you need that constant novelty and high stimulation to keep your brain engaged, new stuff new food new people new movie wowowow. Learning about nature etc can help you notice more of the vibrancy in it but basically you need to re sensitise yourself by dropping out of it all and going cold turkey, crucially get rid of your smartphone and seriously limit screentime generally, you'll be bored stiff for ages (books are a good weening tool) but after you regain some sensitivity to stimuli you should find lots of things very interesting that would have seemed boring before.
Anonymous
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>>2408791 One word for you OP, freedom. Don't you ever get tired of the rules in the city? No parking, speed limit, burn ban, be a good neighbor, mow your lawn, don't make any noise, blah blah blah. Go out and experience FREEDOM. Want to have a campfire? Light a fire. Want to have fish for dinner? Catch a fish. Want to plink with your .22? Want to grow a garden in your front yard? Want to have a drink outside and not be admonished for it? Then go ahead, nobody knows or gives a fuck.
Anonymous
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>>2408791 If you voted for Biden stay in the urban shithole you helped create
Anonymous
>>2408831 >I don't like the silence in rural places. It makes me want to scream just to drown it out. that's very telling anon, you should talk to a professional. (not even banter, that's a mental illness /stress reaction right there). you're basically saying you're so miserable that you need that external stimulus to stop yourself from being alone in your thoughts
your problem doesn't sound like nature, it sounds like you're incredibly wound up and neurotic, but you for whatever reason don't see it?
Anonymous
>>2408791 >start a campfire >cook a steak >drink whisky >smoke a joint >listen to music >look at the stars have you tried not being a faggot?
Anonymous
Anonymous
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>>2408791 >If you've seen one tree, you've seen them all. False. Trees are surprisingly diverse. Have you considered moving somewhere with more biodiversity? Maybe prairies if you dislike trees so much?
And there is a gradient between city, suburb, and the country. Why don't you live somewhere with some small farmland, but isn't in the middle of nowhere? That way you can drive thirty or so minutes to somewhere fairly populated, but also have the reprieve of your home and space to build your wife's garden?
Anonymous
>>2410240 >>listen to music I will ram your BT speaker up your ass.
Anonymous
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>>2410747 >noooo you cant listen to music when youre the only person in miles in the middle of nowhere!!! Anonymous
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>>2408791 sounds like you just want distractions all the time
you should spend a week in the woods alone
Anonymous
>>2410059 This. A lot of people can't cope with being alone, and even less can cope with having limited overt stimulus. I remember hearing about a study where the participants would elect to shock themselves every few minutes to prevent the researcher from leaving the room and leaving them alone with thier thoughts. yet those are very important things in terms of self cultivation and having a healthy mind. (I say overt stimulus because there is plenty of stimulus in nature, but it's not the kind that bonks you over the head with loud noises and colors and patterns designed to compete with your attention.)
Anon, if this isn't bait and you are seriously asking this question, you need to escape. I have lived rural, suburban and urban, and urban is a deeply oppressive and inhumane way to live, and I say that as someone who loves hanging out in coffee shops and art galleries. The problems with the city are deeper and more psychological. At least try living rural and making the best of it. Worst case scenario you want to return to the city but have learned something about yourself in the process.
Anonymous
Anonymous
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It sounds like you base your happiness on externalities. You say you don't like nature and state the /out/ activities you don't care about as the reason, but you should be able to sit on the porch looking into the woods and be happy
Anonymous
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>>2408791 you don't. you clearly are a modern metrosexual thus a lost cause and should stay in your comfy little city.
Anonymous
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>>2408791 >Everything in the wild is the exactly same every day Ask me how I know this thread is larp