Last time, I wrote about the unexpected richness of roleplaying games—or more specifically, storyjamming—as part of rewilding, as a crucial, long-term survival skill. I found something else interesting at that unusual intersection: other people. Yes, other people, besides me, have an interest in both rewilding and roleplaying games, and even how roleplaying games can deepen, improve, and help our rewilding!

• The College of Mythic Cartography. You can’t talk about storyjamming without mentioning the man who coined the term, Portland’s illustrious Willem Larsen. I do take some pride in having a hand in pushing Willem to dust off his old teenage hobby and see the potential in it.

I considered it an honor to work with Peter and Willem on the new Rewild.info. When they first suggested narrowing the focus to organizing Rewild Camps and Rewild Havens, I reacted with skepticism. “Wouldn’t that cut out a lot of really important discussions?” After we talked about it, though, I saw their point. But apparently others have had the same reaction I had. So, I took the time to sit down and write out what the new Rewild.info sets out to achieve, why I consider it important, and what part you might play in it. The new focus doesn’t exclude any of the discussions that the old site supported—it just reframes them in a context that points back to the real world.

Writing, Language & Thought from Jason Godesky on Vimeo.

• Audio on Archive.org
• YouTube (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
• SlideShare. Listen to the “SlideCast,” browse, share, or download the presentation slides.

I’ve made what some people call a “slidecast,” syncing an MP3 with online slides over SlideShare. Tomorrow, I hope to finish editing the video, and will post that.

In 2002, Daniel Quinn, the author of Ishmael, gave a speech he called, “The New Renaissance.” He said:

If there are still people here in 200 years, they won’t be living the way we do. I can make that prediction with confidence, because if people go on living the way we do, there won’t be any people here in 200 years.

I can make another prediction with confidence. If there are still people here in 200 years, they won’t be thinking the way we do. I can make that prediction with equal confidence, because if people go on thinking the way we do, then they’ll go on living the way we do—and there won’t be any people here in 200 years.