Aimless trajectory

Hitchhiking without a specific destination can be described as aimless trajectory hitchhiking. It doesn't imply though, that this kind of hitchhiking has no goal in itself.

Question: What do you feel, after hitchhiking for a long time, not knowing where you are going, not knowing where to go back to, not having any money left, being on the road, hitchhiking, searching for people to share with.

What do you feel when you see the video below, and remember these times?


 * ''Often I was alone, yet somehow I imagined that somehow there where people I shared this with, that where out there, at the same moment, feeling the same feelings? Yet at the same time, paradoxically, I knew very well what I was aiming for, which lead me to be on the road in the first place.


 * The trajectory becomes aimless, to me, when I forget or loose faith, or can not see the next step, despite having a broad picture and a good understanding of what I personally want to create, but somehow felt I can not create by myself.

Staying on the move, accessing stimulation, accessing encounters, yet being in a state of "in between" most of the time. In between these few moments of "having tea with someone".

It's like the "warm" part of hitchhiking. What you see when you hitchhike during the day, after waiting a few hours outside in the cold, knowing that in half an hour, at the next petrol station, you may wait for another few hours. It might well be that one falls asleep, or does not feel like getting off at the next petrol station, just going wherever the driver goes as to sleep a bit more and stay warm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie8vLWDdo7E&gl=BE

Dante co-incidentally found the video on Youtube. It is made within an art project by Dutch artist Edwin Stolk: "AIMLESS TRAJECTORY", A maneuver within the enemy's field of vision.

Excerpt:
 * The dérive was a course of preparation, reconnaissance, and a means of shaping situationist psychology among urban explorers for the eventuality of the situationist city.

Further References

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Aug%C3%A9

Excerpt :
 * In an essay and book of the same title, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995), Marc Augé coined the phrase "non-place" to refer to places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as "places". Examples of a non-place would be a motorway, a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket

Burnout
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm

Excerpts:
 * Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.

You may be on the road to burnout if:
 * Every day is a bad day.
 * Caring about your work or home life seems like a total waste of energy.
 * You’re exhausted all the time.
 * The majority of your day is spent on tasks you find either mind-numbingly dull or overwhelming.
 * You feel like nothing you do makes a difference or is appreciated.

Burnout, is about not enough. Being burned out means feeling empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don’t see any hope of positive change in their situations.

While you’re usually aware of being under a lot of stress, you don’t always notice burnout when it happens.

Money and a Home ?
excerpted from fb thread https://www.facebook.com/groups/hitchgathering/844487905564777

-Dante-Gabryell Monson-

My own experience stretched 5 years, continuously. I now realize it may facilitate communication to travel totally moneyless, as it may help feeling more relaxed about the potential pressure of needing to keep up with monetary expectations from people we meet. It facilitates communication. As some other people who posted on this thread, I traveled usually with a bit of money. ( in average, 100 euros a month, over the first 3 years, then 200 euros a month in the last 2 years, although with constant uncertainty / no regular income ). Sometimes there was none at all. Having some money, makes certain choices possible. Not having money in a society that has dominant social contracts depending on it is very much possible, yet more often in a mode of resource usage optimization / sharing ( including hospitality and hitch hiking ). Running out of choice, getting burned out over the years, took me years to recover from. So I certainly recommend having a region to be able to return, without the stress of having to leave every few days. The difficult part for me, was feeling I needed to move on, even when I felt good with people in a certain city, but not being in a position where I can impose myself. The last one and a half years, I had a girlfriend to return to, which certainly helped. Yet, still very much in a precarious situation ( both of us, at that time ). I am now back in Brussels, slowly learning not to feel guilt in relation to money. Yet also building on alternatives. ( such as using semantic technologies for enabling new forms of engagements / interdependencies )

It is tricky to evaluate what a certain sum of money may represent, as it can depend on a situation, and on the costs within the country one may be in. Since I returned to Brussels, I did not live off more money then I did while on the road ( after paying rent ), yet I progressively built more security in the form of more geographically dense networks of friends. In effect, it is not as much the lack of money, but the lack of choice to stay in one place - that lead me to burnout after 5 years on the road.

My interpretation is that it is more about social contracts / relational dynamics. With money being used across a certain set of relational dynamics. What living without money promotes, is to put forward Communal Shareholding ( based on intention ? ). I find the following of interest : http://p2pfoundation.net/Relational_Model_Typology_-_Fiske "According to Fiske, there are four basic types of inter-subjective dynamics, valid across time and space, in his own words: "People use just four fundamental models for organizing most aspects of sociality most of the time in all cultures. These models are" :

Communal Sharing ; Authority Ranking ; Equality Matching ; Market Pricing