We're on the verge, it seems, of the
next major leap, or change, or book, as Nancy originally named it, of
our lives. We've been talking about the meaning of this next stage,
in political/personal, spiritual, and ecological terms. Some things
are becoming more clearly imagined. Family. Our impact on the planet.
Logical next steps in our lifestyle, given our last 28 years of living
off grid, of pioneering a piece of raw, inhospitable, rugged, harsh
New Mexico land, of having taken a nearly 4 year break from living in
the house we built, of spending significant time in Asia; given that
we will return very soon to this house and land in order to sell it
and begin that next new book of our lives.
The thought that we may not return to
Asia later this year, as has been our recent habit. The idea that we may instead remain in the States, in the Van RV we're planning to
live in, and see what it's like to do that, and to not travel by air
so far, and to settle in, after some fashion, to a new way of life. A
way of life that is consistent with our way of life to date, and
even, I affirm, a next logical evolutionary leap in our way of
living.
Since we are indeed destroying our
planet, and leaving a legacy of despair and difficulty to our
children and grandchildren (Nancy remains more hopeful than I tend to be about this, believing that the infinite creative potential of humanity may still offer as yet unknown positive possibilities......) then what can we do, that is, what can
Nancy and I do that is within the scope of making sense for
ourselves, that will be consistent with the magnitude of the losses
and changes we are painfully aware of? The way of life we are
imagining next for ourselves, that of living nomadically in a rather
small vehicle, makes a great deal of sense for us. We both wish to
live more and more consistently with our renunciate selves, while
appreciating that this choice has not only concrete implications in
and for the material world, but that it has also potently symbolic
and ritual meaning for the psyche and soul especially of our American
countrymen. What statement do we wish to make with how we choose to
continue to live on Earth, now, in Her decline, and in our individual
ever more assured declines?
Simplify, simplify, simplify, has been
one of my mantras these last few years, increasing in volume and
intensity with each passing year that we have lived so simply, and
comfortably, and minimally in the world, and have not felt or been
deprived, and have enjoyed ourselves, and have been healthy and
creative and compassionate. In other words, we haven't sacrificed
anything of value in order to do this, but instead have increased
our appreciation of the value and quality of our lives. We wish to
continue this development, and we believe that downsizing even
further in what we call our home is the best way that we can now do
this. My wish, or one of them at this point, is to be houseless, but
not homeless. (Nancy says that this move into a more minimal living arrangement is still a bit of an experiment for her. No way to know now where exactly it will lead).
Personally, I do not want the
responsibilities (one could say the entrapments) of house ownership,
or the expenses, or the energy consumption demanded by it, or the
wasted – for me – thinking and imagination required by it. I
don't need it to ground me, or to define me, or to shelter me, or to
perform any function at all for me, and so I wish to be free of it.
I don't want to consume more and more
of anything. I rather wish to consume as little as possible to keep
me comfortable (by my own definition), safe and nimble, and thereby
continue my personal revolution of transformation of the consumerist
mentality now more universally embraced around the world. When the
Idiot Bush 2 told us all to go shopping after 9/11, he actually knew
precisely what he was talking about, in order to facilitate the
endless rapacious expansion of American, and now global consumerism,
the very heart and blood of the endless wealth expansion of the 1%,
and perhaps the most fundamental enemy of the Earth and of life on
Her. Much more so, I suggest, than the often touted over population
“issue”. I maintain that there are more than enough resources on
Earth – or.....there were? - to sustain the entirity of Her
populations, but that the insanely misguided mismanagement
of these resources may be the single ecological issue underlying all
others. To put it simply, but in much less fashionable terms, greed. And the corollary of more and more,
and insatiable, desires. Which of course become imagined needs. Blah
blah blah.
We intend to move forward into greater
simplicity and into the greater expression of native intelligence and
common sense. I'm grateful that we are able to do this (well, it's a
bit speculative at the moment, but not entirely unprecedented; we
shall see), as clearly not everyone is. We apparently need to remain
out of the box even in the latter/final stage of life. And why be
surprised by this?
