I read Nick Offerman’s Paddle Your Own Canoe last week and when he got to the chapter on maps I knew I needed to say something about that.  That lengthy chapter goes on about the horrors of navigating by GPS and I agree with much of what he writes, though I’m not here to chastise you for liking your GPS.  Or to chastise you at all. 

But it got me to thinking about the markers of progress that aren’t always what they seem and the things we leave behind in a hurry and then wish we knew how to do.   I work with students, fledgling adults still trying a lot of things on for size, so I see first-hand how narrow and confining a technology-will-solve-it world view can be and also how empowering it is for a 20-year-old to learn to bake a loaf of bread from scratch.

I can be just as much of a nostalgia-waxer as the next person but this isn’t about looking back longingly for a bygone era.  This is about handling your life like a grown up.

Without further ado, I bring you 5 old-fashioned things everyone should know how to do:

1. Use a map.  Paper, hard to fold – yes, that one.  This is about context.  If all you do is plug in an address to your GPS you have no context for assessing its directions.  Even when it is 100% right, if you make a mistake you don’t have the greater context to see what you’ve done and how to fix it.  I have been on many spring break trips with students to remote areas where cell phones and GPS gadgets don’t receive their lifeblood signals.  Then what?  Even if you prefer to use the GPS (and it works and its signal is strong), if you take the time to review your plans on an actual map so that you can see more than just the step you are on – that you are going east and the river should be on your right until that last turn – then when the river shows up on your left you will know something is amiss.  You don’t have to love maps or frame them as art in your house or purchase a sextant or be able to find north by the moss on a tree.  But learn how to see the bigger picture.
2. Follow a recipe.  “I don’t cook” is not acceptable.  If, after following this step, you choose not to cook because your personal chef would be out a job or you like spending all your money at restaurants, fine.  But make one thing from scratch with a recipe.  See that it is not magic and that if you can read you can do it.  Know that if you had to or started wanting to, you could make meals for yourself and others.  Know you are not helpless and you have seen at least one thing become something edible and nourishing, assembled from raw ingredients and the work of your hands.  (Get started.)
3. Place a phone call to someone you do not know.  Though some would argue this is becoming less necessary, there are still occasions when you will need voice-to-voice interaction and help from someone you have never met.  You will not be able to text it or just call and hang up and wait for them to notice the missed call and return it.  It’s likely you will need to do this at the least optimal time for learning an uncomfortable new skill, like after the death of a grandparent when you are trying to call the insurance company or the funeral home.  Practice before you need it.  Role play it with a friend and some tin cans connected by string.  Whatever it takes.
4. Make a budget.  I know it’s not sexy.  I know you may not follow it to the last cent.  But know how to do it.  There is no mystery to this at all.  You don’t have to be a “math person” (I’m not).  This is a skill enhanced by computer software like Quicken or websites like Mint – you don’t even have to do the math yourself, but you do have to sit down and think about it and get it all in one place.  You write down your sources of income (How much do you get paid?  Any other side gigs or family inheritance income?).  Then make a list of your routine expenses for each month (rent/mortgage, utilities, cell phone, groceries, gas, loans, retirement and savings) and more occasional expenses (insurance, property tax on your car, Christmas gifts, clothes).  The total of the things you listed for income should match or be greater than the total of all expenses.  If it’s not, you need to make more money or spend less.  It’s simple but hard.  Not knowing how to make a budget while wondering every month why you don’t have enough money to cover your bills is silly.
5. Make something – anything – with your hands.  You can run full-on into a new artistic endeavor like caning your own chairs or throwing pots or painting with watercolor.  Those are fine pursuits bringing pleasure and relief and the inspiration of creation to your life.  But you can also create a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table out of construction paper and fall leaves.  Make a card for someone who’s been ill or grieving.  We spend more and more of our life – like me typing this and you reading it – on screens with only our brains and fingertips doing the work of creating and receiving.  Keep the rest of you alive with tangible projects that beautify your life and the lives of those you love.  You don’t have to think of it as “art” if that makes you squirm.  Think of it as the gift of your time and attention – a gift to you and to those who will share it.  Watch what happens to you as you pour yourself into it.  Appreciate how it’s still there when the power goes out.