In which I am written off as a waste of time by a faux-hemian

Here's a re-run of an entry I wrote last year, with a comment I received today from its subject, who "just kinda came across" it. Pay special attention to my final bullet point.

FAUX-HEMIAN RHAPSODY

Sometimes, the activities I find to help avoid my duties end up being more unpleasant than whatever task I'm avoiding. This is particularly true today, when in order to avoid cleaning the boat, I opened the Patagonia catalogue that for some reason appeared in my mailbox, addressed to me (or current resident).

I don't know why I'm on their mailing list. Any Patagonia clothing I own is strictly a result of finding it at a thrift store, and worn only for its waterproof qualities, and only when I'm sailing. I don't see the point in wearing technical clothes on the street, like the many women in this area who dress as if they are perpetually on their way to yoga class, or people in the grocery store and the bank, dressed as if they might be called upon at any moment to climb a particularly hazardous expanse of rock.

I find the tone of the Patagonia catalog very smug and elitist. Consumerism is consumerism, regardless of one's professed political or ecological stance, and the catalog's writers work hard to rationalize the necessity of, say, a skirt made of lightweight, quick-drying nylon with a waistband lined with "moisture-wicking mesh." I can see the rationale for pants made of such materials, particularly if one is sailing or hiking, but skirts aren't generally worn during periods of rigorous physical activity, so what's the point?

I had to close the catalogue after reading a little essay written by a man named Steve King, printed aside a full-page photograph of a young woman in Patagonia pants and tank top, painting the name "La Refrita" above the windshield of what appeared to be a blue schoolbus.

La Refrita, as I learned, is a schoolbus, or rather an "art studio/climbing road-trip mobile" that's been converted to run on recycled vegetable oil. Steve King and the woman in the picture, whose name is Emilie, travel around in La Refrita, filtering vegetable oil and climbing rocks. The bus, it is explained, allows the pair to "answer the call of climbing" and to "create art," which is not described, without what Mr. King describes as "compromising our environmental ethics." I assume that the bus contains standard transmission fluid and engine oil, and runs on commercially produced rubber tires, but it's fueled by vegetable oil, and that's good because it means that the 11,000 miles that Steve and Emilie have driven La Refrita in pursuit of "spontaneous adventure" haven't consumed diesel fuel.

I think that running a bus on vegetable oil is a fine alternative to using petroleum products, but I was puzzled by a sentence in the last paragraph of the article, wherein the author states that fueling his bus with vegetable oil doesn't "absolve all the guilt involved with being a modern human and caring for this planet on which we play."

Wherein lies the guilt of "being a modern human"? Is it the guilt of consuming resources? And if so, why is the author involved with a high-end clothing retailer that sells expensive and largely unnecessary products? Someone had to make the tank top that Emilie is wearing for the strenuous task of painting the bus. Someone had to make her pants. If a person felt genuine guilt over consumption of resources, he might drive that biodiesel bus to the Goodwill and purchase one of the thousands of pairs of used pants available there. I don't understand especially where the guilt figures into "caring for this planet on which we play," as the second half of the sentence reads. Maybe the author realizes that driving around and climbing rocks, even in a "low-impact" manner, do not actually constitute caring for anything but one's own affinity for self-indulgence.

I don't know what Steve King does for income. The catalogue mentions that he and Emilie have a book of "art and reflection" due out later this year, so perhaps that brings in money. I can't say for sure, but the whole enterprise smells like trust fund spirit to me. I have run across many people like Steve and Emilie, and the common elements uniting them tend to be:

  • income derived from inheritance or parental indulgence
  • a sense of guilt about consumption
  • consumption of products marketed toward rich, quasi-ecological-minded suckers
  • a marked sense of elitism and self-satisfaction over minor decisions like recycling vegetable oil
  • near-complete ignorance of their actual impact on the earth they profess to love
  • an affinity for giving their cars, pets, or living quarters colorful Spanish names, to distance themselves from upper-middle class Anglo origins
  • humorless earnestness and total inability to perceive irony

I call these people "faux-hemians," and I avoid them like poison.

I contrast Patagonia-shilling faux-hemians with people I know like Tom and Sally, in Tucson, who ride their bicycles around town and to their jobs, grow their own food, irrigating it with recycled rainwater, and live frugally and well. Among other things, both are educators; Tom teaches people how to build affordable houses from straw bales. I have never heard either one speak of any guilt involved with existing on this planet. Instead, they make choices that have little impact on the earth, and actively encourage others to do the same.

Fueling a road trip with vegetable oil seems only to be a degree less bad than fueling it with gasoline, especially when the purpose of the road trip is to climb rocks and amuse oneself. There is no sin involved in amusing oneself, but it is vile and narcissistic to smugly announce one's superior choice of the fuel burned while doing so, or to think that such a choice would have any measurable impact on the world.

---------------------------------

Hi. I just kinda came across your opinions about our project with La Refrita and Patagonia. You are very quick to judge us! First of all, we totally agree with you that Patagonia's "tone" is very smug & elitist. In fact, it was the editor's hand that gave this article it's elitist tone and Steve wasn't too happy with that choice.
Second of all, I bought this bus USED on ebay for pretty damn cheap. We gave it an ecological makeover to run on vegetable oil, which was mostly an experiment to see if it could happen. We weren't going for 100% zero impact, just trying to improve ourselves.
The clothes I was wearing were made out of recycled plastic bottles and organically grown hemp. What's the problem with that? Plus I got them for FREE (the only clothes I wear are free or used) I strongly believe in boycotting the consumerist society. You shouldn't bash Patagonia. Besides being a well-run conscious business, they are VERY generous & supportive of people like us who are passionate about what we want to do.
You also accuse us of having an "affinity for self-indulgence" and imply that we do not sincerely care about our planet. When we did that trip, we were both 22 years old, just finished with college, and wanting to do a cross country road trip like a lot of kids that age. Instead of burning massive amounts of fossil fuel to make our adventure, we found a way to be more low impact. Thats a lot more work than most 22 year old kids care to do. Since then we have both worked lots of different jobs, always trying to find ways to be involved in positive change.
Next you try to label us a trustafarians! This is how we paid for that trip: I published my first big article in The Alpinist Magazine and made $2,000 which got us started. Steve was working as a carpenter. As soon as the bus conversion was finished, we were broke so we got jobs at a restaurant in Joshua Tree, CA, where we worked for 3 months while we lived in the bus and climbed in the park. We saved up enough money to drive through Bishop (where we found some landscaping work) Yosemite (where steve picked up work laying cable for the park service) and on to VT where we were once again BROKE and I started cleaning rich peoples toilets and Steve picked up carpentry again. The whole time we didn't even have health insurance or car insurance because we didn't think we could afford it. We still don't have health insurance! After that it took us a year and a half to save up enough money to move again.

I don't know why I'm even wasting my time writing this.

Emilie Lee

Points to ponder! In the meantime, Google La Refrita and see who comes up. Until then... I have shit to do, and an appointment on Tuesday.



Star of the day. . .Alexander Supertramp!
posted @ 11:50 p.m. on December 03, 2006 before | after

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She lay awake all night,

zzzzzzzzzzz......