Response to "mugen"

This post is a response to a comment by "mugen" on my Encinal Canyon Road post.

mugen said...

wow, he sounds like an awful nice man to let a complete stranger in the house and give him food and a shower. I think it is one thing to offer a stranger food and a bath but completely different to allow a stranger to sleep in your house. He sounds like a very compassionate man. I hope you take away from this experience his kindness. I hope the man, if he sees your post, realizes he has done a good deed and isn't stung by the criticism.

I have been reading your blog for a long while and I guess the reason why I haven't passed this on to too many people is that the tone of your blog is so negative at times. Complete strangers take you in do nice things, but in the end you complain about something. Like the man in Florida who gave you a job to help paint his house. You felt he didn't pay you enough.

You are truly not aimless if you have preconceived expectations and people fail to meet those expectations.

Maybe you should consider reading the Tao of Pooh. You could pick it up pretty cheap at a used book store.

Until then I leave you with a quote from Steven Hawking

“When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have”

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First of all, mugen, I only have 1,000 characters available when I post from my phone, which is almost every post. That doesn't give me a lot of opportunity to say everything I'd like to say, nor does it give me a chance to elaborate on the things I do say. For example, I usually don't have room to thank the people who do nice things for me. If I did, I'd be forced to tell even less of the story. So I want you to remember this: When I tell stories about people doing nice things for me, it should be understood that I am also thanking them publicly through this blog. Whenever I am able, I will make a list of all the people who have done nice things for me and I will formally thank them.

Having said that, I appreciated the shower and the meal "Father Winter" provided me. But remember, the premise of the whole situation was that he stopped me and offered me a safe place to camp out when I planned to walk perhaps another 8 or 10 miles. When I told him I was more interested in getting down the road than having a place to camp out, he persisted. He didn't offer me a shower or a meal or a roof over my head; he offered me a spot to sleep somewhere on his 4 acres of property. Then he reneged and took me back to where we'd met, probably because I was not open to having his religious beliefs forced upon me. Instead of being truthful, though, he tried to disguise it as if he suddenly came up with a better idea.

Sorry, buddy, but that is a really shitty way to treat people. I'd be ashamed of myself if I did it. If he had just been honest and said he decided he didn't want me staying on his property, I would have respected his honesty. But he wasn't honest about it; instead, he weaseled his way out of an obligation he created for himself.

I really don't care that he reneged on his hospitality, but he is a total asshole for doing it the way he did it. I ended up finding a great place to sleep that night, about a quarter of a mile into Ventura County. It was right by the road but hidden. Very peaceful. If he hadn't reneged on his offer, I probably wouldn't have seen my first live rattlesnake in the wild, either.

* * * * *
Now let me move on to what you said about my response to working for Travis Beechler in Florida. First of all, I made it very clear that I felt kind of like a shithead for what I said about Travis. I made it clear that I consider Travis a decent person. However, I don't take back what I said about feeling cheated with the wages.

You made a huge assumption when you mentioned "the man in Florida who gave [me] a job to help paint his house." For some reason, you assumed Travis did me a favor by "giving" me a job. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I did Travis a favor by doing work he desperately needed someone to do for him? Yeah, that's exactly how it was. He needed someone's help; I didn't need what I got from it. I did it because it provided me an opportunity to make some extra cash and I figured I'd get fairly compensated for it. And even though he made it clear he really wanted me to hang around and work another couple days, I declined because no one is worth only $6 an hour.

Mugen, do you ever bust your ass for $6 an hour? If so, do you feel justly compensated?

Yeah, that's what I thought. So don't try telling me I should be thrilled to be ripped off, all right. Put your money where your mouth is.

Regarding the casino and the Olive Garden: I didn't ask for them to take me to the Olive Garden, nor did I ask for money for slot machines. Under no conditions would I have used my own money for either of these activities. Those things were gifts--which I sincerely appreciated--not credit. So yes, I expected to be paid better than $6 an hour for 9 hours of hard work with no lunch break.

But just let me say this again: I consider Travis Beechler a good person. I appreciate the things he did for me and I will probably talk to him again sometime.

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So mugen, should I also feel totally in debt to the trucker who fondled me? Maybe I should have just let him fuck me in the ass, as payment for the ride he gave me from Richmond, Indiana to Joplin, Missouri, huh. If I call him a dick for putting his hand on my cock, are you going to tell me how ungrateful I am? Well, you know what? He's a fucking prick for putting his hand on my cock. If I would have known I'd have to deal with that kind of shit, I would have turned down his offer for a ride, stayed in Indiana, and tried to get a ride with someone else.

I've made it clear that I don't expect anything from anyone. This isn't about me or how I get people to do things for ME. I'm just a representative; it's about the kind things people do for someone, and that someone just happens to be me. I can't document or write about this stuff if I'm not out here doing it.

If you think I'm so negative, go out and do what I've been doing. You'll find out pretty quickly that there are a lot of total assholes out there, like the fuckbrains who try to scare me by swerving off the road at 70+ MPH, missing me by a foot. Yeah, I haven't mentioned those kinds of things, have I? Well, it happens, and it might get me killed. Y'know, that kind of thing happens more frequently than the random acts of kindness, but I don't talk about them much because I make a conscious effort not to sound too negative.

There are some really great people out there, but there are thousands of assholes in between each great person. I'm just the messenger, dude. I don't want this blog or the documentary to be negative, but that's how shit really is, OK. I'm not a negative person for reporting negative things. If anything, you are a negative person for making that assumption.

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Aimless
The Quasi-Aimless Trailer