Sunday, April 15, 2012

Just How High Maintenance Am I?

I feel like in the scope of hippiedom, I'm really freaking high maintenance. I mean from all stereotypical standpoints, I just don't fit the hippie bill at all. Except in my mind, and that doesn't really count.

I finally got around to watching the movie Fresh today. If you haven't seen it, you should. Slightly (only slightly) less political than Food Inc. but just as eye opening. It features everyone's favorite farmer Joel Salatin and a number of others who are showing that you can do things the right way and still feed the world. It reinforced my feelings about being vegetarian since I can't really afford to buy meat that I'd feel comfortable eating. Funny thing though, I focused less on the ideas about our food and just got lost in the lifestyle. The people featured in the movie were all working with their hands, being close to nature, and it was just so lovely.

Along similar lines I saw a little clip from a recent episode of Anderson Cooper about a family living in a tiny house that they'd built for $12,000. They did all of the work themselves and their electric bill is like forty dollars a year!!

I want these lifestyles to some degree. I just have no idea how to get from where I am now to a place similar to those people while still working with who we are as a family and who I am as a person.

So, just how much can I give up in my high maintenance lifestyle to achieve some level of what I'm looking for?

I am very particular about things being neat and clean, so minimalism is perfect for me. But I still have far too many attachments to my things. There is a lot I can get rid of, but on some level I think getting rid of things like my books and pictures would change who I am. So how do I incorporate them into a scaled down life?

I can't grow anything (except children) to save my life, so how on earth would I ever raise any of my own food? I'm also not a huge fan of being dirty which really puts a wrench in things. So can I get over that and learn to love dirt?

I need directions for my directions for anything I try to build, and anything creative looks great in my head and horrible in reality. So how would I go about building anything I might need for the things I'm truly interested in doing? Can I learn this stuff? I'm past caring about breaking a nail, but still there's that dirty potential again. I'm not afraid to sweat though, so that's a start right?

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm tired of being so high maintenance, but I've been this way for a long time now and I don't know just how to get from one spot to the other. Stay tuned.

Fresh the Movie

Tiny House Family

Joel Salatin and Ployface Farms

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