Interview With JW Northrup The Cabin Philosopher
Jim JW Northrup has spent much of his life studying the human mind and spirit.
His studies have always been based upon observation rather than on authorities and opinion. His youth was spent playing sports and in the outdoors – much of it with his father – wandering through the beauty of the high mountains, feeling the tranquility of the outdoors and the sense of adventure that comes therein, only to return to the dissonance and conflicts, the rules and regulations of modern civilization. And he believes because of that, he developed a rather exterior view of life.
He began writing in the mid 80’s. Back then he was literally writing as a professional calligrapher. As a result, his works adorn many a wall with a favorite saying or poem.
He then became skilled at the art of 3D modeling in the field of mechanical design for engineers – which was rather ironic as his purpose was not the technical expertise and accuracy they required, but rather, whether or not the models he created were beautiful – which is the artist in him. He got away with it because his models WERE beautiful and because he grudgingly spent the required time to add the technical details that satisfied the requirements of the anal mind of an engineer.
Knowing that his real purposes were somewhat deviant in the field of engineering, he began writing as an outlet for his creativity and his desire to communicate what he had learned in the field of the mind and the spirit and because his life would never be believed unless it was written down on paper.
Jim Northrup
Welcome to a long my slightly too long BIO:
I was born in a typical middle-class life with two good parents. I did the standard duties of a kid – went to school, did the family stuff and generally enjoyed being an irresponsible kid.
Until I was 18 years old, I never wanted to do anything except to ski in the winter and spend time in the mountains hiking and fly fishing in the remote alpine basins of the High Uintas or Wind River Mountains.
School was merely something to “get through”. A job was a necessary evil for some future time (a time I was not looking forward to) when I had graduated from college and joined the “real world” (ugh).
At the time, I looked over the list of occupations (which would be something I would be doing 8 hours a day for the rest of my life) and could not find a single thing I wanted to do other than what I was doing – but not getting paid for it.
I eventually decided that “Electrical Engineering” had the most potential, so I enrolled at the University of Utah, majoring in Electrical Engineering. It actually was a great career choice at the time. Computers were in their infancy in 1978 and, had I graduated, I would certainly now have a profession that would surely give me an affluent life as a successful member of the middle or upper middle class.
Yet I felt like a fish out water – a stupid fish out of water – which was ironic because I was a fly fisherman with the purpose of getting fish out of water.
So, I purposely failed, and decided I needed to understand life better if I was going to be a willing particip…
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