--- content_date: 2021-06-04 feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE" codex_section: "S09" codex_candidate: false source: Scotomaville source_file: 02.06-setbacks.pdf chapter: 02.06-setbacks total_pdf_pages: 10 volume: v2 title: Setbacks monomyth_stage: "06 - Tests, Allies, Enemies" category: - awareness - identity - strategy - relationship - expedition tags: - setbacks - waiting - maturation - personal-everest - why-not-how - partner-support - self-awareness - stoic-wisdom - covid-obstacles - taking-action summary: I've been carrying the weight of six months of waiting from COVID variants, construction noise, and daily distractions like missing keys while Airstreaming across the country. These setbacks have become an unexpected classroom for maturing rather than just aging, helping me clarify the 'why' behind my expedition and lean on Angelina's support to take personal responsibility. By practicing small steps and shifting my focus from delay to self-awareness, I'm using the obstacles as the way forward on my Personal Everest. qr_links: - https://youtu.be/iXse9w2zagw --- # 02.06-setbacks ## Spread 001 [p1–p2] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=25% R=49% **heading:** setBACKS ### Visual description The two-page spread opens with a bold, split-color title treatment on the left page: “2.06 setBACKS” in large black and white sans-serif lettering, with the subhead “IT’S BEEN SIX MONTHS” centered below a thin horizontal rule. The left page also contains a small, documentary-style photograph in the lower left showing a close-up of a silver pedestrian crosswalk button labeled “PUSH BUTTON FOR” with a glowing red light, while a blurred car streaks through the intersection behind it; a dark gray caption box beneath reads “THE AGONIZING WEIGHT OF WAITING” and describes the impatience of both the button and the driver. The right page features a full-width, full-bleed color photograph of a red Chevrolet Silverado towing a silver Airstream trailer parked on a desert hillside at sunset, with a large, gnarled tree behind the rig, mountains on the horizon, and warm orange-to-blue sky light. A dark gray caption box at the bottom right overlays a quote from Blaise Pascal about learning from those who have been bound by the same obstacles. The overall visual language is documentary, using real photographs from the journey rather than illustrations or diagrams; the left image functions as a wry, literal metaphor for the chapter’s theme of enforced waiting and external setbacks. ### Left page setBACKS Check the timestamp on my last upload to YouTube. Yes, six months have passed. If you’re a subscriber, I want to edify you. I have six new episodes lined up that are real killers. Thanks for watching. Onus Probandi (you remember) ‘the burden of proof is on the claimant, not the recipient.’ In this episode, we’re going to talk about some stuff that you are very familiar with - SETBACKS - having life happen between your plans, like COVID-19, Delta, and Omicron, and the fol lowing variant propagation. (see pages 136-137) IT’S BEEN SIX MONTHS 2.06 Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 226 THE AGONIZING WEIGHT OF WAITING: I could smash the button while it blasts: ‘wait, wait, wait, wait...’ ...as an impatient driver blasts through the cross-walk! ### Right page I’m not sure about you, but the last six months have been the weight of ‘wait wait wait wait.’ Yes, very ‘rich’ for us, as in many very substantial obstacles. As Marcus Aurelius recommends, the obstacle (your scotoma) is the way. Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, and theologian, recommends that you find some one who’s been where you want to go. That’s what you’ve done by watching, discussing, and testing the tools on your own expedition. If you’re hoping for a lifestyle of Airstreaming with some variety - some expedition (a journey with a purpose), then do as Pascal urges... LEARN OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BOUND LIKE YOU: “...and are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began”. Blaise Pascal Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 227 “Learn of those who have been bound like you and who now stake all their possessions. These are people who know the way which you would follow, and who are cured of an ill of which you would be cured. Follow the way by which they began.” Blaise Pascal ## Spread 002 [p3–p4] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=39% R=5% **heading:** WHY - NOT HOW ### Visual description The two-page spread features a mix of documentary photographs and text blocks on a clean white background with black and red typography. The left page (228) opens with a small top image of a wooden Airstream interior panel showing three metal clips/hooks, two holding keys on red and black straps. Below it is a larger close-up photo of an open gray utility compartment mounted on a metallic surface, revealing a blue carabiner clipped inside with a coiled white cable. A black footer banner contains white text about buffing out scuff marks from a flailing carabiner. The right page (229) includes a small overhead photograph in the upper right showing a construction site with a white pickup truck, workers in yellow vests, and scattered materials. At the bottom is a prominent centered quote in large black text: “Waiting is not a setback, but wasting one is.” The images are straightforward documentary shots from the actual journey, directly illustrating the chapter’s personal anecdotes about missing keys and construction-related waiting in Arizona, without ironic or metaphorical styling. ### Left page WHY - NOT HOW The SCOTOMAVILLE channel is more about the ‘why’ than the ‘how.’ Nate and Marissa with ‘Less Junk More Journey’ are great at the ‘how.’ The same with Sean and Kristy Mi chaels with ‘Long Long Honeymoon.’ Those are fabulous channels to learn how. I want to dive below that. Why do you want to have a life of adventure? Why do you want to expose your independence rather than become dependent? I bet it’s because you’re willing to take personal responsibility for your experience and outcomes. A MISSING KEY DISTRACTION A safety protocol we have is a ‘key’board. Notice that there are three key hooks and the key for the middle one is... gone. There’s a blue key supposed to be there. I get distracted in thought. I can be working, but with my mind elsewhere. I can fill the freshwater tank, store the hose and leave the tank hatch open, then drive all the way to Walmart with the carabiner sorely scratching the aluminum finish. Ouch. I chose to locate the keys on the board as a simple safety check before driving. I tried this with the rule I made for the drone cable. Methinks rules don’t prevent scotomas. It’s imperative to stow, secure and mentally focus before driving. It’s distracting and dangerous to be thinking through a checklist while dodging crazy traffic on windy roads and windy weather. I’ve taken personal responsibility for a mature outcome. This included buffing out the scuff marks in the aluminum from the flailing carabiner. Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 228 ### Right page “Waiting is not a setback, but wasting one is” GAIN CONFIDENCE WITH SMALL STEPS You can practice the Airstreaming life at home to gain experience before you acquire the Airstream. Pascal recommended we follow others to reach our goal. We learned how to live in an Airstream, but not how to get into an Airstream. We followed bankers that hadn’t financed an Airstream during a pandemic. Fortunately, we’re in a 30-foot Globetrotter and no longer in a 19-foot Bambi. We’re now in the Airstream we’ve worked toward for five years. So, let’s talk about the ‘WHY’ of setbacks. SETBACKS ARE TIME TO PRACTICE Setbacks turn out to be an excellent time to get organized, to develop habits, and to orga nize. There are many creative ways to use time effectively while experiencing the weight of waiting. (crosswalk blasts wait... wait... wait... wait...) HOLIDAY TIME-OUT It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and all through the house, piles of trash must go out. And since they don’t fetch them I get to take them out. Oddly, I miss my walks to the dumpster. For over a year, I have not needed time to walk-off triggers while peeling onion layers to discover and label what was troubling me. And, yes, in the video, I just picked up other people’s trash. You can be generous with your attention to help others once you get past your scotomas. In hindsight, six months of ‘wait... wait... wait... wait’ - waiting for setbacks were not that much of a loss because I could focus on doing mun dane things like taking the trash out or doing maintenance and trying to stay in shape while watching my transformation in video. I don’t miss the construction noise that excessively interfered with and interrupted and pres sured me during the six months of waiting in Arizona. I get it, some Asperigans have sound sensitivity, but we quickly adapt our routines and focus on other things - like self-reflection video modeling. See! Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 229 ## Spread 003 [p5–p6] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=0% R=42% **heading:** Look at the expiration date on ### Visual description The two-page spread opens on the left with a centered pull-quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer above the chapter’s opening text block, which begins with the exact license-plate expiration passage provided. The right page is a dark-gray field containing a 3×3 grid of nine documentary photographs arranged without captions. Top row shows a hand touching a metal sign, a close-up of an Oregon temporary plate clearly marked “EXPIRES 07 APR 2020,” and a selfie of Daniel holding a black marker near his eye. Middle row includes a street-sweeper truck on pavement, a person pedaling an indoor exercise bike, and a Dell laptop with a large shattered screen. Bottom row displays a dashboard fuel gauge reading “37 mi to E,” a side-mirror view of the Airstream on the highway, and a close-up of Daniel with eyes closed, hand cupping his cheek. A second pull-quote from Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale appears at the bottom of the right page. All photographs are real, un-stylized images from the journey; the cracked laptop and near-empty fuel gauge function as literal visual metaphors for the setbacks discussed in the text. The layout is clean, with the text block justified left and the photo grid occupying the entire right half of the spread. ### Left page Look at the expiration date on my temporary license plate - the 7th of April 2020. Today is the 10th of May ‘21. So the plates expired a year ago. Hey, I’m becoming patient! MATURE - DON’T JUST AGE Consider the distinction between aged and mature, and old. To age is to get old. To mature is to ripen. To mature is the reason why you want to be on a Personal Everest, or an expedition - a journey with a purpose. As a mate, you want your partner to ripen and not just to get old so the quality of your life is richer. The distinction of maturing is a subtlety about escaping SCOTOMAVILLE. Let me repeat it. Don’t just grow old. Ripen. You want to mature, and not just age. Setting off on an expedition - no matter your chronologi cal age - is an excellent time to start your maturation or ripening by fashioning more of who you can become. I’m 66 now. I think I have a pretty good idea of who I am. I’m pretty confident to share that journey with you - in all of its glory or horror. AIRSTEAM BACKDROP The Airstream is just a backdrop to the story. It’s a popu lar YouTube search term. I am very grateful to have it as the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of physical security. The ‘why’ for our full-time Airstreaming is a secure place to sleep, a means to see fabulous places, and family to visit, and more experiences to share with An gelina. Life doesn’t get much better than this. ANGELINA’S CONTRIBUTION Daniel: This explanation of setbacks and having a ‘why’ wouldn’t be complete without Angelina’s point of view. It was 2005 when I left on my first trans-America cycling and in 2006 and 2007. You were always very supportive. Angelina: I needed him to grow up. That’s what I needed. Daniel: I was going to say you could tell them the truth! Angelina: I was recovering from the traumatic brain inju ry, and I needed to figure out how to heal from that TBI with space and flexibility. It was a relationship challenge, and he needed to find himself. Daniel: I was highly frustrated losing everything we had built - the TV show, the radio show, everything was happening - all the awards, the Street Smart season of The Apprentice everything was happening for us. Then, boom, it was all over. I didn’t know how to deal with all the losses and that much of a setback. I was frustrated. “There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler” Dietrich Bonhoeffer leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 230 ### Right page “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end -with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” VICE ADMIRAL JAMES BOND STOCKDALE Vietnam POW @ the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” for seven-and-a-half years. ## Spread 004 [p7–p8] **type:** text_only | **img coverage:** L=22% R=0% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 232 It turned out the setback forced a decade of recovery and became my self-mastery ‘Personal Everest’. Angelina: Yeah, go ahead. Go pedal across America. Go grow yourself up. Go grow up. Daniel: I went to discover what I had, and what I didn’t have - like understanding and refined listening skills. I discovered a huge hole in my reasoning - the lack of uphill advice. I needed confidence that I was on track and not simply broken, eccentric and shunned. “I didn’t know how to deal with that much of a setback. The challenge became base camp for my Personal Everest” Angelina: I’ve always been from the mindset of ‘you don’t complain’; you figure out a solution and a way around it. We’re both wired differently. I knew you needed an adventure because that’s what you were hungry for, and I need ed to heal, and I needed the absence of drama so I could listen to how I needed to heal. You needed to go away for me to hear intuitively how I needed to take care of myself, and you needed to go - to discover yourself. I’m very proud of you for doing that. Daniel: Thank you. Daniel: Setbacks are opportunities to get to know yourself better. Try to shift your thinking from setbacks being postponements and delays into an express lane of self-awareness. Figure out where in the challenge you have liberty. If you have the ‘why’ firmly in your mind, then you’ll win the support of your partner. Creating Enduring Relationships: Gaining trust of your partner to explore and mature delivers great rewards. We encourage you to find the WHY within your Personal Everest, and with that celebrate the journey as it unfolds. ### Right page “You have power over your mind. Realize this and you will find strength.” Angelina knew I was not going to chicky-poo around while pedaling across America but that I would likely sleep in the snow. Angelina: He traveled 4300 miles on $15 a day without a cell phone. Daniel: That was a lot of... I don’t want to say suffering, but it was endurance and a rite of passage. My Andropause was just beginning. Look to setbacks to accelerate your maturation, not just endure them for the age. Angelina: Get excited about who you can become in the process. Look into who you might become through the setback or challenge or unexpected journey - as I need to now navi gate through my son Chris’s death. Who am I going to become through it? Daniel: spoiler alert. They don’t know yet. CLOSING SCENE Jim Rohn used to say: “the book you don’t read won’t do you any good.” “It’s a mystery,” he said, a “grand mystery why people don’t take the necessary action.” They think: ‘yeah, I should,’ but they don’t take action. One of the distinctions I want you to make is the difference between dependent and inde pendent. An independent person takes responsibility for their welfare and wellness, not just by thinking, ‘yeah, I should do that.’ Taking action is the distinction. We’re saying that the action you don’t take won’t help. It’s the actions that you do take that make a difference - incrementally. Little by little, you get up your Personal Everest by making small changes and sticking with it. Angelina: Yeah, agreed. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 233 ## Spread 005 [p9–p10] **type:** text_only | **img coverage:** L=14% R=0% **heading:** iXse9w2zagw **urls:** `https://youtu.be/` ### Left page YOURT https://youtu.be/iXse9w2zagw I commend you. Jim Rohn found it a mystery why people wouldn’t make the effort you are. I say, well done. Don’t quit! List some setbacks that have turned out as blessings. Add to them, WHY they are so. Peel an onion. What is the earlies memory you can recall that can be rewired with these adult insights. WATCH ### Right page RTURN Share your thoughts on this episode, specifically related to ideas below. Ask questions of your peers, AI, and the author. DISCUSS Please advise on the idea of humans ‘maturing’ and not just ‘aging’. What thoughts can my minyan contribute to encourage readers to warrant action and not simply acknowledge wisdom. Certainly, the concept of humans ‘maturing’ and not just ‘aging’ is profound, and it emphasizes personal growth, wisdom, and self-mastery. Your minyan of advisors can provide insightful perspectives on this matter: Socrates: His philosophy, “Know thyself,” would likely encourage readers to continually examine themselves, asking critical questions, and growing in wisdom. This continual self-exploration can lead to maturing in understanding and moral virtues. Viktor Frankl: Author of “Man’s Search for Meaning,” Frankl’s philosophy would advocate for finding purpose in life, understanding that aging physically is inevitable, but maturing involves seeking meaning and embracing the challenges that life presents. Marcus Aurelius: His Stoic principles focus on self-control, virtue, and wisdom. Aurelius would likely argue that maturing means developing character, self-discipline, and an acceptance of things beyond our control, rather than merely growing older. Albert Einstein: Einstein’s curiosity and willingness to challenge existing paradigms could be an example for others to keep learning and seeking truth. He once said, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” Wayne Dyer: A renowned self-help author, Dyer would emphasize the importance of personal growth and spirituality in the process of maturing. He would likely encourage readers to continually strive to understand themselves and their connection to the universe. Ben Franklin: His emphasis on virtues and moral living would provide practical steps for personal growth. His 13 virtues could be a roadmap for individuals seeking to mature morally and ethically. Carl Rogers: Rogers’ humanistic approach emphasizes personal growth and self-actual ization. He would likely argue that maturing involves a continuous process of becoming more open to experience, more existential living, more organic, and fully functioning. Jim Rohn: An influential motivational speaker, Rohn’s philosophy could be used to encourage readers to invest in themselves, learn from experiences, and strive to become better everyday. He once said, “The only way it gets better for you is when you get better.”