We Were All Free Nomads

Today's trendy tiny homes are certainly not the first, or tiniest, homes on wheels. They are a time honoured tradition in many cultures, including the Roma.

The vardo, a horse drawn wagon, replaced the Roma's tents made with flexible sticks covered in fabric.

The much persecuted Roma go on in spite of the state's need to settle and control everyone everywhere all the time. 

By force, if necessary.

The horse drawn tiny home of the Roma could be the original tiny home (by todays definition of <400 sq ft and on wheels).

A tiny home today still offers a certain freedom, like they always have, such as avoiding a mega-mortgage. 

Or government officials "helping".

Alas, the Roma's way of nomadic freedom seems to be a thing of the past. It will not be tolerated. 

That doesn't mean you can't still find ways, you can. Because our simple living, freedom-loving genes are constantly trying to express themselves. 

We were ALL nomads at one time. It lingers in all of us.

A whisper, near dormant, and rarely heard plea for most of us - for the simplicity of living light enough to travel.

Like we used to. 

Closer to nature and each other. 

Less stuff.

More free. 

Happier.

We are going to have to redefine "progress" because it's not doing what they say it is.

Progress is taking us forward to a set of goals, but whose goals?

Not the Roma's. 

And not mine. 

Also, for many the "improvement" part of the definition is missing. You can't still call it progress if what you are doing is not resulting in making things better. 

That's something else. 

I call it failure.

I wonder.

Can it actually get better

than a simple life,

free on the land,

with a vardo, 

a horse to pull it, 

and a group of nice people to share it all with?