There, I said it. I am a microcosm of 300 million other lives. Not to overstate my importance or anything.
Here are the facts: Like much of America, I have come to the realization in the past year that I have too much debt, that I have been living beyond my means, that I need to scale back in every facet of my life. That gardens are good. That shiny things are usually bad.
These are not entirely new realizations for me, and in fact I've been moving in the direction of Shoeless Hippie for sometime. But my convictions in these matters have accelerated over the past several months. Except, whereas the average American is probably buying grocery store generics to save money, forgoing an additional widescreen TV and considering whether they really need to expanded cable package, my version of scaling back seems closer to Going Amish than anything else.
The desire: To live sustainably in a modest, naturally-built home on a plot of 25 or so acres in a rural area. To grow 75% of my own food. To make 25% of my family's clothing and textile needs.
I appear to be on the cusp of a new life chapter. Or perhaps the cusp has passed and I am now in the early pages of that chapter. Cusping tends to be something one identifies best in retrospect. But in any case, it is a very new and delicate and tender notion that has taken root -- one that involves a complete life change my current existence into some that, while not wholly unrecognizable, would be radically different.
