You’ve done it.

We are all guilty of it.

But why do we walk in circles when we are lost?

A great study, “Walking Straight into Circles” was reported on today in Current Biology and expanded upon in ScienceNOW with the article “Why we Walk in Circles.”

Seems when we are lost, and have no visual clue to use for course correction (Sun, Moon), our brain works hard to make sense of where we are headed. Problem is, without a visual endpoint, we tend to meander. Once we start down this slippery slope, our brain repeats tiny mistakes in direction and continually repeats these directional miscues bringing us right back where we started.

I remember once being told, perhaps by Tony Robbins, that a plane “on course” to Hawaii is of course 98% of the time and the pilot redirects the plane in tiny maneuvers to keep it going straight.

Now, it’s easy to throw in some crappy little quote here on “The need for a goal in life” and I suspect some reading this post will have already circled around to that conclusion. Oh, well.

I suggest another interpretation, a bit more biologically straight forward. When we walked out of Africa, or out of Eden, we followed the Sun. From the earliest hints of morning rising, we searched onward and used every last bit of available sunlight to highlight our steps.

Like Buried Logic, our need to follow the sun for direction is deeply embedded into our biology. Early on in human history, we walked where the light was.

Oddly enough, Scientists and laypeople alike still debate the ‘when’ and ‘why’ of human bipedalism; the giant leap that compelled our ancient ancestors to trade in two of their four legs, swapping them for two arms, thus standing, reaching and walking to the distant horizon.

Given the innate need for Humans to explore the regions just beyond their immediate ability to grasp, it’s important to remember that though momentous, Neil’s ‘giant leap’ from Eagle was, most certainly, not our first.

What matters most is not where we are going, but that we are going.

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CNN Reports

NASA

President Obama honors Astronauts

He made me think back to my first camping trip with my Dad on Bear Mountain. Although our “RV” was a station wagon, the overnight in the woods, vision of campfire flames shooting into the air, smell of wood smoke, the animal sounds late into the evening and my first experience in a tent have stuck with me all these years.

I now realize that trips in RV’s, regardless of their design, reawaken the nomadic in each of us. Exploration, camping, adventure, RVing and communing with Nature reminds you that there is truly Dirt in Your DNA.

Today, scientists still debate the cause of bipedalism in the human family tree. For me, there is no question that our ancient ancestors stood to see around the bend in the path, over the next hill. They stood to see if they could walk to the rising sun or reach, on foot, the setting moon. They stood, and walked, for the sole purpose of exploration. In the debate between “Nature and Nurture,” wilderness exploration and adventure are a part of our very fabric. We needn’t learn it, it’s in us; the natural human tendencies of adventure and exploration are innate.

Though we may not all travel the world, have Doctorates and work for National Geographic or explore the wilderness full time, that does nothing to lesson one essential fact – RVers are 21st Century Explorers, the adventurers keeping the covered-wagon spirit of exploration and discovery alive.