On The Road: Super Simple Living

For the next while home is wherever our blue bus is parked.

It's official. We have initiated launch, and are on the road heading east. I wish I could could romanticize it all and say that it has been a freedom-filled fun fest, but so far it has been a daunting challenge.

It is hard to do super-simple living. Our blue bus feels spacious, but 120 square feet is a far cry from our former 586 square foot palatial condo. Throw in a wheelchair, three guitars and a bunch of other stuff, and easy tasks are all of a sudden quite difficult.

But as JFK said before sending people to the moon, we don't choose these things because they are easy, we choose them because they are hard. In other words, we can't find out what our limits and capabilities are in luxury and comfort. We need to face adversity or struggle in order to test our mettle.

It is good to find out that one can "cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way", whether you are going to the moon, or doing an extreme downsizing. This is exactly what has been happening for Linda and I on the first leg of our quest.

We are beginning to find our road legs and develop the routines that make super simple living not only possible, but exhilarating as well. The pay offs for our efforts are already rolling in.

One night we pulled off the side of the highway to bivouac for the night (yes - it was free). After crawling into bed Linda noticed that we could look through the van window and see the stars against the blackness of the sky.

After a while the moon rose above a mountain ridge, caressing the landscape in a soft light.

Toward morning I was woken by a grouse thumping its mating drum beat in the distance. Then just before sunrise coyotes yipping in an early morning conversation lifted me from my slumber. When they stopped there was a sweet silence that is never heard in the bustle and busyness of the city.

I fell back asleep grinning as the first morning light was illuminating a brand new day of super simple living and mettle testing on the road.

Bring it on.

Formerly Free Fruits of The Earth

The fruits of the Earth belong to everyone. Equally.

Everything used to be free. There are the good things, which are still free for now, but you will pay dearly for most everything else.

It's pretty hard to do anything without having to spend money. You have to pay to work, pay to play, pay to eat, and pay to sleep. If they could figure out a way to measure and charge you for the air you breathe, you would be paying for that privilege as well.

One thing I really don't like to pay for is to sleep. You even have to pay a nightly camping fee in the back country of national parks, seemingly far way from the tentacles of civilization and the economy.

Things are set up so that you probably have to break the law to sleep for free regardless of where you are. Until recently, it was illegal to be homeless in Victoria, BC Canada because it was illegal to sleep in the open anywhere in the city.

Private property. No trespassing. Do not enter. No overnight parking. Go away and spend some money.

In 1754 Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote on the "horrors and misfortunes" that humanity suffered as a result of the invention of private property. In Discourse on Inequality he wrote,

"The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

I am sure the Genevan philosopher would be horrified at the misfortunes suffered by humanity today as a result of "Mine, Mine, Mine-ism".  A small group of humans claim they "own" the fruits of the earth, and the rest of us have to pay to access "their" resources.

Next the greedy will say they "own" the fruits of the Sun and the Moon. And the atmosphere. They will want us to pay them dearly for these formerly free fruits.

But let us not forget that the impostors are wrong. The fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the Earth itself to nobody.