A Strange Time To Be Alive

Chetco’s Outside

“A Strange Time To Be Alive”

by Chetco Timmins

Boy, it is a strange time to be alive—at least I think so, given being in America in 2024.

Humans are experiencing some odd trends, like people thrift shopping for clothes or even picking through landfills to find vintage T-shirts to sell for money.

I had a dream about food waste, which is a significant problem. We throw out about one-third of the food we produce. This leads to many issues, including the necessity to work just to earn enough to live. Money has become the primary indicator of a person's worth, reducing everything—physical, mental, and environmental factors—to how much money someone has. Other qualities like kindness or appearance seem to matter less if you can generate wealth.

In an effort to create equality through equal opportunities for wealth, we've instead established a different type of inequality based solely on wealth attainment. Many people live alone, lacking a supportive community, which reduces the human experience to an isolated money-making endeavor.

It's Saturday, and I’m at Picnic Point Park. I'm filming today because during the week, I’d be at work. It feels absurd to work during the best hours of the day, especially when sunlight is vital for our well-being. Seattle doesn’t get much sun, and when it’s out, I’m usually indoors. It seems silly to rely on weekends to fulfill our psychological and physical needs.

Saturday is packed with errands, hanging out with friends, and trying to recreate experiences we suppress during the week. I don't understand why we have to suppress our needs to perform tasks for wealth. Intrinsic motivation often fades in the pursuit of money.

Currently, I work at a school, but I find myself suppressing my needs to get through work. Afterward, I’m too tired to engage in other activities. For the past couple of years, I’ve worked in outdoor education on a freelance basis. It’s a different schedule, and although it doesn't pay well, I get to spend more time outside with friends.

Now, knowing what I do, it seems unreasonable to work for a living. Humans have existed for so long and are capable of finding solutions, yet we still tie our shoes the same way we always have. Why are shoelaces still a thing when better technologies exist? They are designed to break and be replaced.

We have velcro and other mechanisms, yet we continue to use shoelaces, which shows how far behind we are in convenience. Even though there is enough food to feed the entire planet, we waste so much.

It’s all very strange—strange times indeed.

Watch the full video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFH1GPvUv3Q&t=1s