JUNE 30, 2016 // 15
THE OREGON
DRIFT WOOD FORT
BRIGADE MANIFESTO
Throw of the yoke of indoorism, hit the beach and build a fort
Story and photos by MATT LOVE
T
he Oregon Driftwood
Fort Brigade Manifesto:
(compiled after a recent
mission to Fort Stevens
State Park where 42
Oregonians constructed 10 forts in
two hours).
A spectre is haunting Amer-
ica — the spectre of indoorism.
All the powers of the New Digital
have entered into a holy alliance
to strengthen this spectre: phones
and video, Internet and networks,
games and hashtagging, tech bil-
lionaires and spitire gadgetry.
The Oregon Driftwood Fort
Brigade asks you to throw off the
yoke of indoorism this summer, get
outside, hit the beach, gather drift-
wood, and build a fort by yourself
or with friends, family, dogs.
Relish the labor. Collaborate.
Support. Talk. Invent. Try out
ideas. Invite others. Amend them.
Discard what doesn’t it. Embrace
what does. Seize the metaphor you
are fashioning with your own two
hands.
Erect spars and stanchions.
Hoist, maneuver and interlock
crooked wood into shelter, art,
studios, secret portals; make pure
whimsy or precise architecture that
enchants fellow beachcombers.
Watch from afar as they crawl
inside the structures and return to
childhood. Watch them take naps,
too. It always happens.
Turn detritus into delight, lot-
sam into fun. Add a little cairn here
and there for extra measure.
Let everything go with the old
sound of the ocean roaring in the
background. Relaxation will inil-
trate every atom of your existence.
All of this is free to do. In-
doorism costs a lot of money
and allows corporations to amass
incredible wealth and collect data
on everything a person does.
Forage for wood! Fortify your
life and ind the fort within. For-
swear the iendish foes that inagle
frantic fatigue from your soul.
Fight the fastidious factory mental-
ity with the fulminations of face-
tiousness that enable you to forget
the furor. Find the best F word in
the vocabulary and free it to ly
like a falcon and loat on forever.
Realize the driftwood fort you
chains aren’t even real; they are
will build is unique and belongs
self-imposed. What has the slavery
to no one except
of screen time
all of us and the
really taught you?
RELAXATION WILL Anyone?
eternal cycle of
INFILTRATE EVERY
nature. It will not
But hurry! The
last — that is its
ATOM OF YOUR wood is disap-
simple beauty and
pearing quickly to
EXISTENCE.
profundity.
that other revo-
Join the bri-
lutionary analog
gade in the fort building revo-
organization: the Oregon Beach
lution. You have nothing to lose
Bonire Brigade.
but your digital chains, and the
(The best places to build drift-
wood forts along the North Oregon
Coast are the beach near the South
Jetty of Nehalem Bay and the
beach near the South Jetty of the
Columbia River in Fort Stevens
State Park.)
Matt Love is the author/editor of 14
books, including “A Nice Piece of
Astoria” and “The Great Birthright.”
His books are available at coastal
bookstores or his website,
nestuccaspitpress.com