This is a great article and one I borrowed from the No Impact Man site. Note to Sean – if thats a green retirement community you’re planning, sign me up.
My friend Sean occasionally writes for the blog. For a long time, he has been searching for a way to live that makes him truly happy. He doesn’t believe in the rat race. He wants to find a way to live that doesn’t rely on stuff and corporations but on people and community. His thinking interests me because he, like me, believes that if people look for a way of life that is truly good for them, chances are it will be better for the planet too. Anyway, here’s Sean’s latest.
“I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows that I’m miserable now…”
That line is from a song called “Heaven Knows” by Morrissey, the king of adolescent angst. Every time I listen to it, I burst out laughing because I completely identify with the sentiment. I need to work, but I don’t always want to work. I want to spend time with friends, I want to take walks, I want to enjoy life. Who doesn’t? I want my work to be part of my life, but not the end of it.
In the past, whenever I dwelled on this my solutions came in the form of stern commands to myself, for example, “Quit whining. Suck it up. This is life. Grow up,” etc. And for the most part, that’s what I did. I showed up, I made a buck, I did what I had to do. I got a job that wasn’t perfect, but it paid the bills. Then I got laid off. I was scrambling, and my wife was working long hours to keep us afloat. That was a couple of years ago, and as I faced looking for a job, and then maybe finding a job, I realized I needed a major change. I applied for a job teaching English in rural Japan, and I was lucky to get it, and so I left my world behind.
In my time in Japan, I’ve learned two very important things. First, I realized that I need to be around people like me. I love Japan, but boy do I get lonely out here.
Secondly, and just as important, I learned that I don’t need much to be comfortable. My wife, son and I live in a small apartment. I take home about $2,000 a month, much less than we did in New York, and we never go without. We don’t count our pennies, we don’t feel as if we’re making a sacrifice, we take little trips and we buy what we need. The thing is, we just don’t need to buy much stuff.
So, now that I know I don’t need much money, and I want to be near friends, what to do? I read that the healthiest lifestyle involves low intensity exercise throughout the day. I keep having these crazy fantasies about getting some land, putting some shipping container houses on it, and living with friends on the cheap. A place with gardens, bike paths, and always someone to talk to or start a project with. I have some savings, so this dream isn’t completely impossible. The hard part is convincing others to join me.
I’m not talking about a commune, or even an active rejection of modern life. I’m just talking about a way of life that puts having some fun at the center, a way for people who want to garden, to make music, to play games, or to just have a good conversation, and live cheaply enough that we’re not working all our waking hours to pay the bills on a lifestyle that keeps us in our seats, dreaming of a better life. As I contemplate a return to the US, I realize that I don’t want to return to a life of scheduled exercise, paid for entertainment, and constant worry about the rising monthly costs on a life that I’m barely living. I want to live with friends, have fun, and enjoy this midlife crisis I seem to be having.
In short, I want to make a retirement community for people who want to retire from the rat race, but not from their life’s work. I want to find a way for people to make what they really care about the focus of their life. How would we make a living? I’m not sure. I do know I don’t need that much to thrive and I like to move around during the day. What do you think? Am I just dreaming, or can this be done?
You have probably seen the awesome new DOMA Coffee t-shirts. Here’s a little information on the people who made them for us…
Slow Loris came to life in Oakland California in the spring of 1997. Inside a very small storage room (located in the back of a parking garage) of an old cannery building, the very first shirts were printed. After graduating from CCA(C) in 1998, Slow Loris founder Jessica Lynch left Oakland and returned home to Washington state. Re-locating to Guemes island, Slow Loris continued to thrive, screen printing drawings onto shirts, paper and clothing for people around the world, and for touring bands like “Tv on the Radio” and ” my Brightest Diamond”. While keeping true to the hand made quality (no computers are ever used for design making) Jessica had her “hands” full and in 2007 teamed up with good friend Arlo Rumpff. Arlo had been a fisherman in the Bering sea, and brought his hard working enthusiasm to Slow Loris just in time. He learned how to screen print, (he’s better than JEssica now) models most of the shirts on the web site, and deals with a lot of the business side of Slow Loris, a part of the job Jessica was NEVER good at. Team Slow was now complete.
Any average workday in the studio consists of drawing, singing, printing, and beach walks with a bunch of dogs. There’s also a pig named Marnie-biddles who likes to observe through the windows and get into things, (this makes Jessica somewhat crazy, but she still loves him). The adopted motto ” feeling strong and not in a hurry ” reflects the pride Team Slow feels standing behind a quality hand made product .
You can find Slow Loris at slowshirts.com
Here’s some news on what one of our friends from Cooperative Coffees is doing in Louisville. Very cool project!
This short documentary features a remarkable young economic development engine in Louisville, KY started by coffee shop owners Mike Mays and Gary Heine (of Heine Brothers’ Coffee…another Cooperative Coffees member). Their concept was to compost their coffee grounds, and turn this waste into wealth. Mr. Brock’s story illustrates how this simple idea evolved into their current vermicomposting and urban farming operations in just a few short years. MacArthur Foundation Fellow Will Allen is interviewed, along with Gary Heine, Mike Mays, Sarah Fritschner, and others.
The Patano family recently took one of the Dragonfly VW’s out for a test run in Montana. Loading up the bikes, the boys and the Janis Joplin 8-tracks, they hit the road for the woods.
Besides the fact that the van didn’t have an 8-track player (it actually has a great stereo with CD and i-Pod hookup), the reviews were thumbs-up all around. Sleeps four and comes stocked with the all essentials of a back-woods campout, these vans are very cool…bike rack, camp chairs, cook stove, cooler, awning, heater, 110V power, etc.
We are working on starting a chapter of the VPS here. They are an excellent group whose purpose is to preserve our vinyl music heritage by fostering active, all inclusive community building amongst the passionately interested and curious to promote enjoyment and education relating to vinyl records, record collecting, record playing and all associated matters of analog musicology regardless of listening tastes.
The Vinyl Preservation Society of Idaho was founded on the following principles and respectfully asks its members to adopt them and embrace them as their own.
Honor the importance of music as an art form
Listen actively and with intention
Respect others and their musical choices
Maintain an open mind and a curious ear
Choose vinyl whenever there’s a musical choice to be made
Preserve our vinyl heritage by caring for and about vinyl records
Recognize your ownership of the Society by actively influencing its direction
and development
Evangelize the vinyl life and your role as an Ambassador for the Society at
every opportunity
Share your vinyl history, knowledge and passion
Support your local independent record merchants
Let us know if you are interested in getting involved with a new chapter here, or if you just want to listen to some vinyl.
Our friends at Sonofresco and Loring SmartRoast have asked us to check out their tabletop Commercial Coffee Roaster to see how it works as a sample roaster for our Loring Kestrel S35 SmartRoaster.
So far, we have found that it closely duplicates the roast levels and taste profiles that we get from our Loring. It easily roasts a standard sized green bean sample and can even go up to 1 pound to experiment with roast levels. Roast level is easily adjusted, and roast times are about 12-13 minutes (very similar to the Kestrel S35).
The most popular camping vans ever manufactured are now available for rent. Go green and see the Great Northwest, Eastern Washington, North Idaho, or Western Montana in a customized Dragonflyvan™. These classic Vanagon Campers have been completely refurbished and are in top mechanical condition. Check out their website, or stop by…they are right down the street from the roastery.
