The Simple Life - Back to the Future

When we lived in the woods of New Hampshire, in a funny little neighborhood ( P. called it "New Jerusalem") populated by pioneer Waldorf School families, mostly teachers' families who had built their own houses into sides of hills, we pretty much all had funky V.W. vans. Getting the kids and teachers to school in our not so very dependable cars, on hilly dirt roads, through the snow and ice, especially the winter of  1977 (is that the one, the one with the back to back blizzards?) was a daily challenge, a daily struggle.

A bunch of the neighbors had horses. I had the fantasy that if we found an old sledge, and an old cart, we could get the kids to school with horses creating much  less hassle and expense than using the cars. It never worked out.

We had created a life that was pretty idyllic for our children. We had gardens, animals, old fashioned toys and games for the children. But we were not living a simple life. Much of the time we were racing around trying to do everything ourselves.

I have already talked about some of the problems encountered previous to this time when many of us tried to live collectively. Not such great outcomes. Those communes which did survive a few winters tended to have either a really nice trust fund behind them or some guy (mostly) who grabbed the 'boss' role and undermined the idea of collective decision making.

Now, in 2012, a lot of my friends have realized that they are racing around from appointment to appointment and are once again yearning for a more simple life. But we also check our iphones a lot. We are racking up many miles in the air visiting the grandchildren, and life, if anything, feels more pressured.

I don't have a car right now. I am in Oregon in the middle of nowhere. I get a tired and heavy feeling when I think of getting a car. Here it goes with the price of gas, the insurance, the upkeep, the guilt about pollution. But without a car, I have to shop at a more expensive food store because I can't walk and carry all the stuff I want. Or, I have to depend on friends for a ride. When I get going on this I wish I lived in a city where there was good public transportation. Very few in the USA qualify. and cities are expensive and I love being in nature. Moan, groan, agony, pain.

What I am trying to figure out is a simple life, but not an old-fashioned one. I want to move into the future without trying to go back to the past. Building on our past we have created this stew we live in. And it seems to me that the USA is a very hard place to change. Leaving the Country might turn out to be my best option. I love the slow pace and human compatibility of life in Nicaragua. I loved seeing the ox cart deliver the 60 inch flat screen TV to the house next door. But, again with the grandchildren and the constant airplanes.

I have done a lot to drastically reduce my consumerism, and in fact, I always hated shopping so this isn't so hard for me. But I am not a homesteader. I am looking for the right mix. Perhaps global warming and the expense of all our wars all over the planet will force some changes. And maybe my generation will man up and get off our own treadmills and use our collective intelligence and resources and change the world. We did it in the sixties. Why not now?