Satan takes me places
It’s been more than a few weeks since I last updated, so instead of spending time catching up on all the stories (I’ll eventually tell them), let’s just get straight to what brought me here.
I went out camping on 4/23. It was the first GORGEOUS weekend of the year, but because of my schedule, I hadn’t gone out camping on a Friday/Saturday night in about 7 years. I knew that it would be hectic, because within that time, the Treasure Valley has seen an explosion of growth, and every single person had been chomping at the bit for the first real weekend they could get away. Typically, I go out in the middle of the week to avoid crowds, butI went out in the early afternoon and was blown away at what I found. If I’m going back in the middle of the week, I only need to drive back around 15 miles behind my favorite reservoir, and I have my choice to a handful of sites where I won’t have any neighbors. Considering it was my first weekend experience, I was surprised when I found out that every single campsite down this mountain road was packed with as many tents each campsite would allow, for 45 miles back. And this was just the first day of the season.
Regardless, I tried to look past how the increase in traffic to pay attention to all of the vertical drop offs on the side of the single lane, dusty, washboard dirt road, but the roads were full of side by sides and ATV’s whipping around every blind corner around 35 MPH. I eventually settled on a spot that I have camped at many times, but when I pulled up, instead of being solo, I found a small group of people in rooftop tents and crashed their party. We all connected on how we all set up our cars, and then I just tried to enjoy the sounds of the river and a fire that evening.
I love going out camping, and one of the reasons is because it has always given me an opportunity to take pictures.I run an account for my car on instagram, but it’s largely because I can find beauty in nature, and having a constant stream of photos to go through on my computer has helped gain a deeper understanding of the post-production side of photography.
After I came back from that quick overnight, I posted a few pictures to Reddit, and I kept getting requests from other users to show them the ins and arounds of my car’s setup. It was something I’ve wanted to do, but I’d never sat down to write out a shot list, and putting the time into making one always seemed like a chore because, usually, when I’m camping I try to relax and not bring work with me, especially for the limited amount of time I have on my overnight trips. I would have to plan out another trip, but around the 26th, we began seeing significant amounts of rain for about a week.
Eventually, there was hope that I might be able to get out on 5/3, and come back on 5/4. I went to work the morning of 5/3 with grey skies, but by lunch time came around, I could tell that there was a perfect opportunity to grab the break in weather. I told Hailie that I would be back tomorrow no later than noon, and then I headed out to my favorite spot to make the video.
Now, in the 10 days I had been gone, I knew not to go back on that road. Driving on muddy roads KILLS the trails for everyone else, and with how bad that road is on a good day, it would be inconsiderate to drive in the rain. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of growth in the past 7 years, and not everybody has gotten the message of how to treat nature, and the area is dealing with the transitional discomforts of change. My personal amount of transitional discomfort was experienced on this specific drive, on a road that was now infinitely worse than what it had been less than two weeks prior.
Regardless, I pull up to my favorite spot about 15 miles back, and I see one other camper there. I don’t want to impose on their private evening, so I keep driving. That’s the beauty of going out in the week, there is almost always another spot just up the road that’s completely vacant. Since my favorite spot was taken, my mind went to another gem that I had checked out last time I was here, but it was too crowded. It’s a spot by a bridge that goes off the main path, it requires driving over a bit of terrain, but it has a BEAUTIFUL view of a river bend with a very flat campground. It is a literal goldmine campsite that I had never stayed at, but I had explored years prior.
Once I made it to camp, the rest of the day went exactly as planned, the weather was beautiful and I was able to get most of the footage that I wanted before the sun went down. The following morning, I woke up around 6:30, watched the sunrise, finished the rest of my shots and began breaking down camp. I usually try to get back on the road by 10:00 because it’s about an hour and a half outside of home, but I also like to give myself extra time in case I find spots on the side of the road to jump out and take pictures. This morning, because I was getting shots in the sunrise of the camp breaking down, I was already to go by 8:20, so I set my phone down to get the final shot of me driving away from the site.
This is when Murphy’s Law kicked in, and I discovered that my car’s battery had died. I could write all I want about it, but I recorded my slow descent into self-deprecating sarcasm, as well as how I mentally prepared myself to hike 37 miles into Boise.
Here are the lessons to take away from this trip.
Carry a set of jumper cables in your car. I used to have a set, but Hailie didn't, so I purchased a battery jump starter and put the cables in her car. If the battery jump starter is not reliable, you will wish you had a set of jumper cables.
Don’t expect your car’s emergency services ( Subaru StarLink, On*, etc…) to work in the middle of nowhere.
Maintain 30 years of mental trauma that manifests as paranoid anxiety constantly screaming the message, “THIS IS HOW YOU DIE” and then keep everything that prevents those outcomes in your car. Think of them like security blankets that you will rarely ever need, if ever, but will greatly appreciate if and when you do.
Take more water than you think you need camping. For an overnight, I usually split a 5 gallon jug into 3 separate containers. A 40 oz hydro flask that sits in my Tactical Tracks holster for personal hydration, another 64 oz hydro flask for boiling my food (instant coffee, powdered bone broth, instant pho noodles, oatmeal, etc.). the remaining goes into a pack in the back of the car to drown out my fires.
Take enough food to have an extra meal. You could potentially meet another camper who was under prepared, or you could potentially become a camper who is adequately prepared for the unexpected. Either way, an extra container of nuts & berries or a bag of beef biltong can easily get packed into your cooler to have as great energy for hikes.
Have a good bag that is comfortable for long hikes. While we’re at it, have good shoes for that same reason.
Most importantly, and I cannot stress this enough, your headspace is important in moments of crisis. Don’t panic, take a walk to clear your head if you need to. Familiarize yourself with the surroundings, and find specific markers that you can describe your home base when you find someone. Having a good attitude towards your eventual success will eventually bring you to your success.
I had to make a decision to walk away from my safety net, and in the moments of turning my back toward my car to walk towards the city, there was definitely a bag of mixed emotions. While frustration was absolutely present, the main one was a sense of relief that. Growing up, my father took me out camping, he taught me survival skills, and he helped prepare me mentally to be prepared for the unexpected. Even as the backup to my backup failed, I was still prepared to try every option I had available until it was time to face a hard decision and commit to it. You never realize that kind of stuff until you face crappy situations, but the entire time I was walking, I kept saying, “Oh how dad would be laughing his ass off if he saw me in this situation.”
Ultimately, my Wednesday was shot. I scared the shit out of my wife because I couldn’t call her until 1:15, and at that point she thought I had fallen off of a cliff, but everything was covered under warranty and my roadside assistance . My car got towed back to the dealership for them to take a look at in the morning, but this meant I wasn’t going to have Satan to take me to the Capitol on the 5th. This is only slightly relevant because I had been waiting a few months for the National Day of Prayer.
If you’re still reading this far, you’re probably raising your eyebrow at this point. You see, Idaho’s chapter of The Satanic Temple had reserved the second floor of the State Capitol, which is ten minutes from my apartment. I had been planning to go down, get pictures and use it as an opportunity to meet the community. For me, this is about two things. Personal expression and patriotism
I come from an entirely Christian upbringing, and objectively speaking, as an adult I still think the personage of Jesus can be viewed as a decent role model. He associated himself with people the church wouldn’t, he called out the hypocrites within the church, he inspired others to be more than themselves, and to help those around him. I’m talking about the guy who washed the feet of the woman at the well, not the hatred and unacceptance that is found in the Old Testament, The irony here, is in my pursuit to be more like him, his followers ruined the experience. After leaving the church, I’ve found The Satanic Temple is more christlike in their nature than many of the christians in my life. As a religion, TST are vocal allies for the downtrodden, advocates speaking out against the hypocrisy within the church, and hold values that I don’t find controversial. I 100% align my views with 7 tenets of The Satanic Temple, and after introducing them to many of my catholic clients, it's difficult for them to find any reason to disagree with the rationale.
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own.
Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs.
People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one's best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
All of those tenets support the patriotism my dad instilled in me growing up as an army brat. We’re looking out for one another with the best information that we have, defending everyone's freedom, regardless of if we believe in the same things or not, because THAT is what America is about.. And what better way than to see democracy in action, than when the most conservative state offers the most religious freedom, and the religious minority is the one on top of their administrative duties.
So anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
I showed up around 9am, an hour before all of the scheduled events, and it was largely prayer and worship with a few individuals. A few school buses showed up for field trips, and I wondered if the teachers or the parents knew in advance what was about to happen. One guy, whom I later introduced myself to and found out his name was John, was playing guitar in the open air of the rotunda. It was music I heard at church growing up, but I have to acknowledge that the acoustics of the building made his guitar sound amazing, and it was probably the only time that the air was quiet enough that the music could be appreciated.
Right at 10am, TST Idaho showed up in perfect form. After finishing a parade through downtown, they arrived at the front steps of the Capitol and continued on into the main rotunda, where they would stay for the next 4 hours. It was a scheduled day of speakers, building community with one another, and offering the satanic ritual of unbaptisms to anyone who wanted to feel free of their religious bondage.
Now let’s acknowledge the three legged elephant in the closet. Idaho is not known as being a bastion for liberals to come together fighting for human rights, let alone women’s rights, tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community, or even a simple acknowledgement of basic science. It is largely conservative, religious, and is growing more extreme as political candidates push further to the right. So when The Satanic Temple shows up, it should comes as ABSOLUTELY no surprise that their arrival brings a number of individuals that the state is more known for, the kind of people that don’t particularly agree with the values that the religion promotes, but also, the kind of people that flat out do not want to see the religion exist.
Unfortunately, this turned the room into two sides of a spectrum. But it wasn’t a religious spectrum that shows many colors and shades of how different people worship, instead, it became a bipartisan spectrum of us and them. The real tragedy in the mentality of “us & them” is that the voice of the individual is silenced as the narrative of the movement becomes too loud to ignore. John and his buddy were playing music all morning, they were not there for violence, they were there for love. But when a conservative extremist walks beside him draped in a flag, its difficult for the other side of the aisle to view this as anything other than a united front.
This is the American tragedy.
Once you look past the chaos, the message is very simple. We do not believe other any religion should dictate the lives of any individuals that do not subscribe to that specific religion. America is religiously plural, and we do not have a religion that defines Americans. While it is a largely Christian nation, Christianity can be split into dozens if not hundreds of different sects that all practice in their own ways. That’s only talking about Christianity, because that same level of diversity can be found in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as non-theistic religions such as Satanism (do yourself a favor and never confuse someone who follows CoS with TST). The influence of current politics throughout America by a major religion is unreasonable and unconstitutional, and TST is a vocal opponent of a theocratic majority that holds political influence. The point of national prayer day is to reflect on the fact that America is a nation where we can all worship and practice religion, regardless of the specifics behind the belief.
One of the things I love about photography is when you find those moments of people unaware they are being watched. In these moments, moments of absolute vulnerability, you find people at their best, and sometimes you find them at their worst. Aron Ra is a well known speaker in the Atheist community, and he was at the Capitol as a guest speaker for TST. There was a moment when everyone was listening to another speaker, James, and Aron was off on the side. He was speaking with someone who had come in with his church, and the two of them held a discussion for a solid amount of time. There was nobody watching them, there was no stage, there were no angry voices, there were just two men, peacefully exchanging ideas that were not compatible.
This is why I love America, and these are the ideals that we should be vocally supporting. A nation where we can accept one another, in spite of our personal world views.
Seeing Aron Ra talk to somebody on the opposite side of the aisle while everyone was listening to the main speaker is a powerful metaphor for bridging gaps. How many times do we go to events and assume “we” are right and “they” are wrong? How easy was it for me to go right back to that “us and them” mentality that divides us. It was at this point that I turned to walk downstairs, and I saw John playing guitar on the third floor because it was quiet enough up here to be able to listen. I finally introduced myself to him, “Hey man, I was here a lot earlier to get some pictures and I got a chance to hear you play your guitar before all the chaos started. You’re amazing and whoever that girl that was harmonizing with you had some powerful vocals.”That man’s smile was infectious, and it stopped being “us and them” and it quickly became Chris and John. All you need to do is take a step in the direction that allows you to meet people where they already are. Once John and I got to talking, it was very immediate to recognize that he was entirely different than the flag bearers that were marching all around him. The diversity in his own community is the same diversity within the entire religious community, and that’s why I believe TST demonstrating publicly is such an important thing to democracy.
Even though I believe it’s important on a political level, it wouldn’t be an event from The Satanic Temple without some casual blasphemy, so unbaptisms were offered from ministers for anyone who wanted to free themselves from the bondage of the prior religious agreements they were bound to. The process is simple enough, you kneal or stand, you allow your hands to be bound in a symbolic gesture, you say out loud that you want to be free from bondage, and then you are released from your bondage as easily as you allowed it. An upside down cross is marked on your forehead with ash, there’s a “Hail Satan!” and you’re on your way. The line lasted for over an hour, and a few dozen people went through the ritual as onlookers prayed, sang hymnals, and rebuked Satan out of their state’s Capitol in Jesus’ name.
And yes, of course I got unbaptised. You don’t show up to princess’ ball, dressed to the nines, just to turn her down when she asks you to dance.
Ultimately, for me, this was an opportunity for people like me to find likeminded individuals, and to the core that’s what I think religion is about. It’s finding a community dedicated to something that is bigger than yourself. To me, TST is largely a community that has been damaged by organized religion, and the higher purpose we collectively serve is the assurance that those same transgressions cannot be reenacted upon the next generation. Because of that, it’s a lot of the downtrodden that the church has rejected, and there is a reasonable amount of animosity towards the church when we realize how much political influence they have over the LGBTQ+ community, over women’s rights (please don’t get me started on the recent SCOTUS draft opinion this far into my article) When you find people that have been through a similar journey, you find companionship, you find family. This is what the TST offers instead of a theistic structure towards the traditional structure of religion.
So that was my story, this is my announcement.
I am now available for limited photography engagements. Specializing in events and candids, I will also be offering couples & engagement photos, family sessions, portrait headshots, as well as boudoir sessions, with the ability to travel to unique locations outside of the treasure valley. I am also offering limited SEO management, including website development and management. I will eventually be adding video production, but right now I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew at this point. Reach out to me using the contact form on the website if you are interested.
I have been pursuing since I was 16. If this weekend taught me anything, it’s that it will always be scary to walk away from your safety net, so having a good attitude towards my eventual success is what will eventually bring me to my success
Until next time
-Chris
