Posted on 05/17/2008 4:26:34 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Like many other young couples, Aimee and Jeff Harris spent the first years of their marriage eagerly accumulating stuff: cars, furniture, clothes, appliances and, after a son and a daughter came along, toys, toys, toys.
Now they are trying to get rid of it all, down to their fancy wedding bands. Chasing a utopian vision of a self-sustaining life on the land as partisans of a movement some call voluntary simplicity, they are donating virtually all their possessions to charity and hitting the road at the end of May.
“It’s amazing the amount of things a family can acquire,” said Mrs. Harris, 28, attributing their good life to “the ridiculous amount of money” her husband earned as a computer network engineer in this early Wi-Fi mecca.
The Harrises now hope to end up as organic homesteaders in Vermont.
“We’re not attached to any outcome,” said Mrs. Harris, a would-be doctor before dropping out of college, who grew up poverty-stricken in a family that traces its lineage back through the Delanos and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Mayflower settler, Isaac Allerton.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Dumb stories like this have been coming down the pike on a weekly basis since the 60s. It won’t be long before they show up at the local welfare office. I think a lot of people just crack under pressure and want to return to their prehistoric roots.
Actually they should go do overseas charity work. Work amongst the poorest of the poor . . . then let’s see how they really feel about things.
Moving to virtually all-white Vermont, and remaining Americans is a phony cop out. Trust me, first sign of trouble (illness, etc.) they’ll have their big fat hands out.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Now that's a nugget of gold right there.
Such a pity that FReepers are so quick to condemn these folks.
You’ve got it.
There’s nothing inheriently noble in doing without for the sake of doing without. They are searching for a freedom that is still, in an inverse way, based on their possessions.
The truly humble do without not for themselves, but to do good for others. Missionaries go to poverty stricken countries and do without because they have to in order to help others, not because they are “letting the universe take them for a ride”.
So they’re moving from Austin, TX to a remote cabin (no electricity) in central VT to be organic homesteaders?
Do they realize that VT has winters?
Have they ever grown enough food to sustain them for a year at a time?
He wants to keep his job as a telecommuting sysadmin, but doesn’t know if there’s even Internet access “in the woods.”
How will they feel about having to kill brush and trees to get space to grow food?
I’ve met turkeys smarter than them...
Have you ever been to Oregon, Vermont, San Francisco/Berkeley, etc.?
Only the young, could come up with such a foolish plan. They will live and learn, and look back upon their stupid move with a smile. Provided they survive. It brings to mind that movie “Into the wild”, or better yet, that idiot bear guy who lived with the bears and ultimately became a bear lunch, in Alaska. Many of us had such stupid ideas when we were young, when we were drinking a brewskie with friends and having one of those funny cigarettes. A half hour later we fell asleep and forgot about it.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
What do they plan to organicly homestead if they do not own anything?
Dust mites?
Skin cells?
Silly people let's see how long you can live on air.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The story mentions some people who took their 3-year-old to live with them full time on a sailboat. Sounds like an extremely bad idea to me. I hope nothing happens.
If it makes you happy, do it.
And justifibly so.
Let me give you some that philosophy that the Puritans would have understood immediately and these poor souls do not.
"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
The concept is fine even if they are being a bit dramatic about the matter and vastly overstating what they are doing. However they have not thought things through. And that is by their own admission. Doing things off the cuff is ok when you are single or if there is just the two of you. Not sitting down and planing things out when you plans will drastically effect your children is flat out wrong.
call it homeless...althought I wonder if they might leave the shopping cart in the shopping center.
“I think a lot of people just crack under pressure and want to return to their prehistoric roots.”
Bingo!
Their idea is not altogether preposterous, rather a good idea just taken to an extreme. Retirees and other mid-life folks like myself and wife scale down all the time for reasons that are similar....and as choice that refutes the materialistic hardsell of “gated retirement communities” with “Robert Trent Jones” golf courses and “world class amenities.” My last house was a fully furnished 3000 sq. ft, but we now live (smaller) in a two bedroom 1600 sq. ft small town neighborhood home as an alternative to what a possession-obsessed society tells we should be doing. More power to anyone that recognizes the possibilities for happiness absent possessions and toys. (However, you can’t have my travel trailer!)
Good point. I didn't see that. "A goal without a plan is nought but a wish."
I'm betting much of this is stored away collecting lots of interest in an account called Backup Plan.
Their first New England winter will find them running back to civilization and greedily accumulating anything they can get their grubby hands on (especially warm stuff).
Utopia is, roughly translated, Greek for nowhere. I truly hope their children become union busting agents of the FBI
I remember in the early 70’s traveling through southwest Oregon and then on though Northern California on Highway 101. It seemed like every crossroads or empty field had some derelict school bus and a group of hippies “living off the land”. Fifteen years later there was no sign that anyone had succeeded, although the same types are now well ensconced in Eureka and Arcata. But someone from there might have a better take on it.
Good luck to them. We have some friends who chose to do something similar. Their son now a young adult has other ideas. He could hardly wait to get off the homestead and into a city.
Such a pity that FReepers are so quick to condemn these folks.
Well, you can plate a turd with gold, and you won't have a nugget, even though it will look like one. These people are idiots, pure and simple. Either that, or mentally ill.
I have to work for my house, my internet connection, my car, air conditioner, refrigerator, laptop, coffee maker, I could really go on and on. Of course it's a burden to have to work 2 out of 4 weeks to pay for a house. And it pretty damn well is the center of what I have to do to live, and it is a positive thing. I thank God every day for letting me live in these times. There's a nugget for you: Thank You God!
These people are idiots, and they are asking their children to suffer because they are stupid. Just like the drug-recovered pentecostals that want to be different, so they were socks and no makeup and plain long skirts. But their kids get laughed at and ridiculed, and they don't care, it's their religion. A better nugget would be don't make your kids suffer over some poorly thought out realization made with a marijuana cigarette hanging out of your mouth.
It reminds me of that stupid movie about the guy who graduates college, but eschews his parents gifts to go live in Alaska, so he sells his car, burns his money, and tramps off into the wilderness, only to realize that he made a big mistake, but he dies before he can get home. I'm sure he had some gold-plated turd of an idea that appealed to some idealistic fantasy in his mind, but I didn't hesitrate to go to the ticket booth and get my money back for that piece of crap movie.
Why is everybody in the modern world in such a rush?
LOL
I had many ancestors on the Mayflower - Allerton was one.
He is the only one I wish wasn't. He was a scoundrel...he enriched himself at the detriment of the colony...and was tolerated far longer than he should have been, due to his having married a daughter of the colony's beloved spiritual leader, Elder William Brewster (one of my 7th great great grandfather's.) Allerton was finally asked to leave the colony.
All a person needs these days is a laptop, Internet connection and cell phone to be/do anything they want.
That can be done anywhere. Having few possessions never made more sense. A lot of the retired generation have already adopted that lifestyle strategy, letting them travel around the world — by traveling light.
It’s not like anything can’t be replaced — and then one usually has the state of the art model that is probably miniature rather than the big space occupier.
I think it is a real art in today’s world to see how few things one actually needs to carry around with them. You just need to know where and how to plug in to everything else.
The guy already has a big bank account that allows him to access the markets anytime he wants to. That’s really what’s important — is just getting things when you actually need them, and the rest of the time, letting it go and somebody else may be able to use it productively at that time.
Things with no current use, are a liability and not an asset. Voluntary simplicity is not necessarily going backwards but could be making a quantum leap into a more efficient, effective and sensible lifestyle.
Who needs most of the junk in their lives anyway? If they can move on without it, great. You don’t need to store your own personal stockpile anymore. Keep it at Costco and Walmart until you actually need it.
Dude, if you knew anything about homesteading, you’d know that a laptop and net connection are about the last things you’d need.
it’s a nice idea, and indeed, over-attachment to material goods is a great spiritual hindrance BUT it should be noted, such a thing is ONLY possible in the United States and possibly a few other western countries. Many of you mentioned the security net of public health-care, welfare, etc... but even more basic - they will still access the wealth of the USA in ways they don’t even comprehend - access to clean water everywhere they go, eradication of once common diseases they will never have to worry about, good roads and efficient transport, etc... As one of you indicated - go try this India!
It sounds like they’re creating their own version of homesteading — rather than yours.
His first concern was whether there is an Internet connection so he can continue what he’s doing. Theirs is just another unique adaptation of life that is their personal lifestyle — and as long as it makes sense to them, for however long that is, they ought to run with their idea.
Everybody should — rather than the old conformist mentality that doesn’t make everybody happy anyway. For some people that is owning a lot of property, for others, cars, DVDs, art.
A lot of times, just walking through a Costco and Walmart makes me feel rich — because I know I could have any of that stuff if I really wanted/needed them — more so than actually having it all stockpiled in my living space.
I grew up poor too.......underfed, over disciplined and just plain abused.
It's a conditioned response. If these people really wanted to live the "simple life", how did their story end up in the NY Times?
Let's just say I'm very suspicious every time a liberal tells me I need to learn with live with less. It's usually a set-up to telling me they need more of what I have.
I don’t care what version they want, the fact is homesteading and running a self-sufficient organic ag operation takes lots of stuff.
You may not think so, but you wouldn’t know. Trust me on this.
That reminds me of the wife in one of those silly trading moms shows. She was such an air-headed hippy, she truly believed you could stare towards the sun and gain nourishment from it. She actually though that was a way to help all the starving people in the world.
Stepped on a few too many Legos barefoot, sounds like.
I agree. I’m not an advocate of voluntary poverty, but I am an advocate of being fully aware that the more one owns, the more one is tied down by the responsibility of those possessions.
There is a freedom to not being encumbered by a multitude of possessions, and in choosing carefully and wisely those items which enhance our lives and our freedom.
Chasing a utopian vision of a self-sustaining life on the land ...
The Harrises now hope to end up as organic homesteaders in Vermont.
Patience, you silly people ...
Hope and Change™ is on the way
It’s because we are a rich and prosperous nation that many can now develop the next economic manifestation — of common wealth as opposed to the notion of personal wealth, because the common wealth is by far the greater.
Largely, that is knowing where and how to access information of what one needs, when one actually needs it — and not simply maintaining vast storehouses of goods or information, regardless.
Things get more complex until they require a greater simplicity and effectiveness; that’s always been the pattern of evolution and progress. But that simplicity is on a higher level and not the lower level of the past.
Don’t feel sorry for the kids. My grandfather was a wanderer, in search of utopia. He ended up in South America, my mother followed him down there and I had a perfect childhood. Perfect.
We had very little ‘stuff.’ But we had friends and family and lots of love and I wouldn’t have traded that for all the stuff in the world.
My family was so poor we couldn't even afford to pay attention
As a kid, I got three meals a day. Oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal." ...
My family was so poor that if I hadn't been born a boy,I wouldn't of had anything to play with
My family was so poor that the skeletons in our closet died of malnutrition.
My family was so poor that the hobos used to drop off lunches for us kids.
My family was so poor we didn't even have lead paint on the walls to eat.
My family was so poor that once when somebody threw the dog a bone, he had to call for a fair catch.
My family was so poor that all the cockroaches died of starvation.
My family was so poor that on garbage day, we had to beg for garbage from our neighbors to put on our curb.
My family was so poor we couldn't even afford to live in the ghetto. We lived in the alley behind the ghetto........
My family was so poor that we saved up all year long so's we could have spam for Thanksgiving.
My family was so poor that the only clothes I had to wear were hand-me-downs from my older sister.....
when i moved out of the country i was living in a ~2000sq' house so i sold/gave away almost 2/3 of what i owned and it was a very weird feeling, an almost freeing if you will. i wondered if that was how somebody about to commit suicide feels after giving away their stuff as some do
anyway, i shed even more stuff before returning to the states and now barely fill a 650sq' cabin.
but everything i have now, will last me the rest of my life...
We were so poor that we ate the cheese off the mousetraps for Thanksgiving.
The soles on my shoes were so thin that I could step on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.
Our farm was such steep ground that we looked up the chimney to see if the cows were coming home.
It was rough I tell you, and we got no respect. But that’s another story.
Shoes! You had shoes? You were rich compared to us! We were so poor we painted our feet black and pretended we had shoes! We were so poor we had to use fireplace ash mixed with water for the black paint! We were so poor we had to borrow used ashes from the neighbors! We were so poor that when we wanted milk to pour over cereal we milked the dog!
We could usually get shoes by the time we turned 30, but as noted, a bit worn. We did the black paint thing, and also learned to hold a walnut in our toes so it would sound like we had shoes when we walked into church on Sunday.
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