Hi! Here to share some things I've been mulling over this week. Maybe it's due to mid (late?) winter doldrums, but it's mostly been people and ideas that seem radical to me that have kept my mind whirring. I'm reading a book called The Unsettlers by Mark Sundeen that opens with the story of a young couple with a baby on the way who step off a train in Missouri, assemble their bikes, strap their belongings to their backs, and ride miles in the dark to the (electricity-less) Amish farm they'd bought sight unseen. They proceed to grow their own food, build new structures by hand with natural, local materials, and welcome over a thousand people for free classes, including a multi-week permaculture course with a two year waiting list. They do not want to live within a system that supports the exploitation or harm of others or the environment, so they opt out of rising above the poverty level (in order to avoid paying what they call "war tax"); driving cars and using gas; storing money in banks that invest in questionable companies--the list goes on. I can't wait to read about the other two case studies in this book. The book's epigraph is a Jim Harrison quote: "The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense." There's no nonsense here, just people trying really hard to do what they think is right, no matter how hard.
Lately #4: Doing Things Differently
Lately #4: Doing Things Differently
Lately #4: Doing Things Differently
Hi! Here to share some things I've been mulling over this week. Maybe it's due to mid (late?) winter doldrums, but it's mostly been people and ideas that seem radical to me that have kept my mind whirring. I'm reading a book called The Unsettlers by Mark Sundeen that opens with the story of a young couple with a baby on the way who step off a train in Missouri, assemble their bikes, strap their belongings to their backs, and ride miles in the dark to the (electricity-less) Amish farm they'd bought sight unseen. They proceed to grow their own food, build new structures by hand with natural, local materials, and welcome over a thousand people for free classes, including a multi-week permaculture course with a two year waiting list. They do not want to live within a system that supports the exploitation or harm of others or the environment, so they opt out of rising above the poverty level (in order to avoid paying what they call "war tax"); driving cars and using gas; storing money in banks that invest in questionable companies--the list goes on. I can't wait to read about the other two case studies in this book. The book's epigraph is a Jim Harrison quote: "The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense." There's no nonsense here, just people trying really hard to do what they think is right, no matter how hard.