i am entirely too cynical.

My extraordinarily interesting life (he says sarcastically) has led me today to a musty hotel room with furniture from the late 70s (but with a microwave!), in the beautiful but weird City of Salt Lake. I am attending the Outdoor Retailer's Convention--or OR, as the cool kids call it.

OR is the time when everyone from the Outdoor Industry convenes in one place as vendors show off their updated wares to buyers. It's loud, obnoxious, stressful, claustrophobic, and exhausting...which doesn't really reflect the outdoor lifestyle that once attracted me to this business. Brands like Patagonia, Marmot, Columbia, and The North Face are seeing who has the biggest dick. Their show displays most certainly break the million dollar mark, and it's almost a game to see who can make the most noise and attract the most people. Granted, I'm not opposed to the tactic of giving away free beer to attract people--it worked on me.

It's "sell, sell, sell!!" nonstop. Selling products, selling lifestyles, selling your company, selling your word, and selling yourself. When you break it all down, it essentially has nothing to do with the outdoors, it has to do with dollars. It's just another industry. Sure, it's probably more fun than selling dog food or something, but it's just selling to make money.

Matt, you're a SALES REP. Yea, I know...

I couldn't help but think as I elbowed my way through thousands of people today, that I would like to start minimizing. I mean, there's so much stuff! Everyone is making everything for every occasion. This convention center was filled to the seams with stuff--just to make enjoying the outdoors more enjoyable? Yea, I guess to a point. But I'm getting so damn jaded with all the "this brand is better than this brand", "this product is better than this product", the mud-slinging, the egos, the bullshit, and excess. It's not what the outdoors are. In fact, it's the opposite.

The outdoors represents a step back. A step back from the egos, bullshit, and excess. It simplifies life in a backwards kind of way where you escape everyday conveniences and rely on basics. Today felt like REI, the New York Stock Exchange, and Vegas got thrown in a blender without a lid and this is what sprayed all over the ceiling.

My happy place today was envisioning a week-long float trip down the Buffalo River in Northern Arkansas that I'll hopefully get to make a reality in May (thanks for the invite, Jeffrey!).

It's a strange contrast. Loud, obnoxious, stressful, claustrophobic, and exhausting; mud-slinging, egos, bullshit, and excess--to try and help make someones outdoor experience more enjoyable. I suppose business is business--money is money. That's how it is. And I suppose I should be thankful that it's still an enjoyable (for the most part) industry to be in.

It'd be a lot cooler if someone would just pay me to be on the other end...camping alongside the Buffalo River, not worrying about selling stuff to people. An end user on payroll. Not a bad title.

That's what's on my brain.


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