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 ...
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
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