Monday, April 11, 2011

Ever since I was young

I have tried to imagine what it would be like to be homeless.
I've....kind of wanted to try it.

Sound crazy yet?

To voluntarily be homeless would be an adventure:

*Your life wouldn't be ruled by money
*you wouldn't be bound by a house or job
*you would consume (in all senses) so much less
*you would be so much more in tune with your surroundings and nature
*you would live every day with a certain hope and trust that you will be provided for
*you could go a lot of places, and in your own time
*you'd have to be clever, using what you've got and what you find
*you would appreciate all that you do have
*you would be, in some ways, free.

I do not wish to belittle those who are homeless or who struggle to get by-
and I hope my words are not taken as insensitive or completely ignorant:
obviously I have never truly been without a place to reside and cannot fully understand what it is like.
But I do wonder, I do consider other ways of living.

In the book "Asphalt Jesus" by Eric Elnes, he meets "Mark Creek-Water,"
a "voluntarily houseless, not homeless," man.
He drinks water from creeks, bathes in creeks, find shoes or clothing on the side of the road (or buys secondhand), walks everywhere, sleeps outdoors, shares whatever he does receive, and seems to be one of the happiest men that Elnes has encountered.
Mark's cares are vital (e.g. Where am I going to get food? Where am I going to sleep?), but they are few.

Few cares.
Doesn't that sound nice?

I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy.
Or maybe I'm sick of buying into wanting the "American Dream" like so many dream about.
I want to live simply and fully.

In Walden, a book that tells the tale of Henry David Thoreau going into the woods to live life straight from nature, he states:
"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived."

I hear you Henry, I hear you.

3 comments:

Nuetz said...

This reminds me of the book Wild At Heart too! Good stuff Kate!

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. I absolutely love transcendentalist thoughts like these.

inspirEd said...

Thank you Alex ;)