RRC Archives

Dirtbags are the really smelly fuckers at Miguels.

There are two kinds of dirtbag: The kid who grows up middle class or up who has the luxury of not working too hard or conforming to society too much because he can always step right back into that and his college/career opportunities later. So, he chooses not to have much and live on a shoestring, bumming food/beverages if possible etc...so he can focus on climbing and hooking up etc...Avoiding responsibility until it is really necessary.

The other kind: People who are not so young anymore, but are often drug addicts, alcoholics, or interpersonally really screwed up, who cope by overfocusing on climbing and block out all of the rest of life because they couldn't cope with it. They don't have much because they have to focus on climbing to be ok and do not have time or skills for higher level work or relating. This is sort of sad, but better than being a serial killer, hooker, burgler, etc.. Kind of similar to other homeless people, but climbing a lot makes people think it is about passion rather than about difficulty functioning.

just because you climb and live in a tent does not make you a dirtbag dru...

at your age, may I strongly suggest focusing on school , getting good grades, going to college, and THEN make the decision what to do with your life..ie, you then have "choices"....

if after the basics are out of the way, like your buddy who sold his robotics company, you choose climbing as a lifestyle and not merely as a way out of a currently crummy situation, then you will be more content. choose your life, don't let your choices choose it for you. hope that makes sense.

and don't think that because people are older than you that they are wise. People older than you have simply had more time to make more mistakes, they will give you advice so that you may avoid making the same ones, but in the end you have to be able to decide for yourself weather the advice given is right for you. Basically, take all warnings into consideration but make your own choices.

krampus wrote:and don't think that because people are older than you that they are wise. People older than you have simply had more time to make more mistakes, they will give you advice so that you may avoid making the same ones, but in the end you have to be able to decide for yourself weather the advice given is right for you. Basically, take all warnings into consideration but make your own choices.

well said..use that when listening to me and kramp...or ignoring us. he is old as dirt, and I am catching him, so he is wise.

Both pig and kramp nailed it. one thing I would add, dru, is to get advice from many people who have taken different walks of life.

You will hear many different answers to the same question, and once you learn how to recognize biases or motives for behavior, you should be able to make a strong, informed decision.

Dru, I'm too old to know anything about this topic, but man, I'm impressed with your spelling.

interesting topic and many good points made on all sides... it is interesting to me that the "dirtbag" ideal exists in many other sub-cultures but by different names. for example, i work in the music business and spent the first few years of my college career attending more concerts than classes. i chased music from one side of the country to the other, often sleeping in rest areas or wal-mart parking lots, thumbing rides, working in parking lots selling food, beer, or t-shirts, focused only on getting a ticket to tonight's show and hopefully gas money/a ride to the next one. i was a "tour rat" or "lot kid", but "dirtbag" would have been just as appropriate. at that time all my worldly possessions could fit inside my backpack and my duffel bag, and i was okay with this and was very happy.

my life is much different now: i work 50 to 60 hours a week on average, travel extensively for my job (my jet-lag tells me i am somewhere over omaha, though the hotel's address is in los angeles), don't get to climb nearly as much as i would like, and fly to shows instead of hitch-hiking, and stay in hotels instead of rest-areas. and i am still happy. would i return to my tour rat ways today? not a chance. but i am glad i had them and look back on them fondly, and honestly can't wait until the time between this job and the next and i can take a year and just travel again climbing and seeing music.

i think, and the emphasis is on the "i" for this is just my humble and ultimately inconsequential opinion, that the difference between a true "dirtbag" and any other homeless person is choice. in my tour rat day (ie. music dirtbag) i made a choice to be homeless and live that way, for the vast majority of the homeless in this world, they were never given a choice (at least not explicitly. i realize they made choices that ultimately lead to their situation, but they did think "hey, i'm over this roof shit"). whatever the motivation behind the choice, a dirtbagger has intentionally chosen the lifestyle in question, and this, to me, is the defining trait.

of course, as with any sub-culture/culture/group of people in general, there are those that give more than they take and those that take more than they could give. maybe it is time for modifiers like dirty dirtbags for the parasites and yoda dirtbags for the zen-transcending-the-bullshit dirtbags and so on?

/rant

~josi