The Road Less Traveled...Until Now

Diablo Lake Overlook, North Cascades National Park, Washington (photo credit-Neeli Clute)

Sitting in the temperate rainforest, I thought about how the world has drastically changed in the last five years.  Technology with a push from the pandemic has transformed the way we work.  I, for one, am infinitely grateful.

I am able to travel to glaciers, choose my level of Internet connection, and decide where to spend my hard-earned free time. Choosing where we work from is far easier than it used to be.  With a few anchor spots, I have moved intentionally toward life as a “road scholar.”   I have the freedom to work as I travel, a lifestyle I have always leaned toward. Wisdom and inspiration is found easily when exploring the world with a curious mind. After three months working in and from Hawaii, I spent over a month in Wyoming helping my mom negotiate serious health challenges.  Having a flexible work location allows me to be present for my family when needed.

98% of Remote Workers Consider it a "Very Positive Experience" (survey on remote work data 2024, Pumble)

It turns out I am not the only one needing flexibility for family, especially women.  Data on work satisfaction report 98% are "very satisfied" with remote work. They would recommend it, find it a positive experience, and would work remotely for the rest of their careers if possible. (work statistics by Pumble). It is crucial for many workers to have flexibility. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), women spend an average of 4.5 hours per day on unpaid care work, compared to 1.5 hours for men.  That means I have spent at least an equivalent of 85 additional days providing care every year. Being a single mom since my children were 4 years old and 9 months old, and an only child of my mom whose health issues require careful and thoughtful maintenance, my guess is that I am on the high end of that. The need for a flexible schedule sidelined me for a while, but being my own boss and having the ability to handle many of the responsibilities virtually across the Pacific ocean and 2,000 miles of the US mainland got me back in the formal economy.

It also allows for time to make memories worldwide.  With the doctor’s blessing, I took my Mom on a cruise to the inside passage of Alaska.

Photos from the inside passage of Alaska and Victoria, Canada

Immersing in the raw wild of Alaska, I watched miles of shoreline pass by. Some days it was simply sky and water.  The ocean and sky could be shades of gray on gray one day, and another the sun reflected off the water in an array of diamond reflections that hurt to look at.

Gray days hugged you to them.  Layers of clouds full of shapes were soft and round, long and wisping.  Deep blue hollows rolled in the sea punctuated with patterns carved out by wind and crosscurrents.  The light would strengthen and brighten the sky, as if encouraging the ocean to lighten up.  Holes would open and collapse through the clouds, changing their hue in milliseconds of time.  Sometimes stretching with enthusiasm, the blue sky thinned the vaporous gray into wispy strands.  Other moments, a steep bank of menacing clouds would charge into that free space, swallowing it with a rolling hunger.

We forged through them all, sea spray curling my hair against my cheek.  Buried deep in a wool deck blanket I watched for the telltale whale spout, the churn of the engine lulling me with the monotone vibration that varied slightly as the surface dipped and rolled.

An iconic vertical spray drew my eye from the immense horizon, and I counted as I saw the fin slap and tail flip of at least three whales traveling in a pod.  Triangular fins broke the surface as dolphins raced in the same direction.  We had come across a confluence of fish that would sometimes leap out of the water in panicked evasion.  Lessons are all around us in raw nature.

Alaskan wildlife (images from Canva- they are far better than mine, but even better in person)

The Web of Life is Intricate and Fragile

I learned from scientists about how these oceans were changing.  Some of the whales were more adaptable and others who were not, were quickly diminishing.  The pods that could only eat one type of threatened species of fish were in big trouble.  I was reminded of how change impacts even the immense giants of the ocean and our ability to thrive is so dependent on our capability to learn and roll with it.  According to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), 7 out of the 13 great whale species are classified as endangered or vulnerable.

“Whales play a significant role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere; each great whale sequesters an estimated 33 tons of CO2 on average, thus playing their part in the fight against climate change.” -Why They Matter, WWF

Our actions impact everything around us, to the point of decimation. Many of the negative impacts are due to human-induced factors. Vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, noise pollution, and climate change are all playing a role.  Disrupting a single strand of this delicate web has a ripple effect on every connected creature. This is not new knowledge, but it often falls on the deaf ears of those most entitled to take more than is needed without regard to the impact. I have found an alarming disregard of “leave-no-trace” almost everywhere I travel, wild and city alike.

I tried to understand this point of view. These oceans and salmon-teeming streams seem so very abundant, that taking more than your fill seems trivial.  Yet for every one mature salmon removed from a stream, thousands of fertilized eggs never make it to the spawning grounds.  I saw seals swimming up the stream, bald eagles swooping down, and a bobcat eager to capture the struggling salmon who had gone for weeks, even months without eating.  They used their energy to avoid predators, navigate up the river, and if they were lucky, spawn. Smart scientists are also beginning to regulate the more greedy predators as we try to protect the endangered species.  In a conversation with Dr. Dawn Noren, a friend who is a research scientist at NOAA in Seattle, says sea lions who binge on the vulnerable salmon moving to the spawning area are tagged and referred to as “repeat offenders”.

Learning is Survival

The biggest lesson for me is the value of learning.  We don’t often have a choice in how our world is disrupted or the headwinds we face, but the way we respond to challenges makes a tremendous difference in our success, perhaps even our survival.  Salmon don’t think or adapt as well as humans.  They act primarily on instinct.

Humans have the tremendous ability to act on instinct AND create a new approach.  Having curious and agile mindsets often means all the difference when facing extinction.  Human brains are able to learn with the constant use of theories we test and adjust around.  History teaches us that our traditional or comfortable state of life is never guaranteed. Protecting sacred wisdom while not ”throwing the baby out with the bathwater(or experienced worker, for that matter)” becomes a skill set that is needed.

In shifting times, practiced sea legs help keep our balance in the changing seas.  It has allowed us to inhabit almost every environment in the world and adapt quickly to change in a relatively short time span.

The Human Brain has an Advantage...For Now

This volatile state of the world was predicted, so it should have been no surprise.  But the crystal ball only shows so much.  Being able to react and adjust around volatility is a survival skill.  AI is advancing rapidly in its ability to learn, but still cannot rival the human brain.  When utilized well, it can and is outsourcing some of the burden for humans to keep up with rapid change.  This works best if we use our human capacity to understand not only how AI can assist us, but also how our own brain learns in order to leverage it fully.  We are not taught how our brain actually learns because most teachers aren’t taught this either.  Some teachers know this innately, and teach us ways that work well and some don’t.  Most of us are lucky enough to have had at least one teacher that innately understood how young minds learn best and were gifted at helping us think, learn, and create lasting mental models of the world.  It will be a crucial skill in the decades to come as new technologies to learn and adapt to arrive at lightning fast speed.

It can feel like trying to step on a speeding train, but the exponential change driven by technology has been increasing its pace for a while now.  This world is radically different from the one prior to the existence of the internet and cell phones.  Wishing it away will not change the fact that the train is gaining steam with advances in artificial intelligence.

I hope, as a society, we will manage this new power with integrity and a strong dose of ethics while we take advantage of the benefits it can provide.  I, for one, am committed to understanding its evolution and how to work with it rather than standing in fear of the negative potential.  I am past that.  For now it has allowed me to more fully care for and appreciate this beautiful world and take the road less traveled, more often.

Sunset from the sea (image by author)