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."
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