By Ken Jorgustin
As I type this from my folding chair while sitting under the awning looking out over thousands of acres of reds and yellows of Autumn mixed with the greens of spruce and pine, across the peaks and notches of the Presidential Range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I am awestruck by its beauty…
While thinking of a post for this evening, I decided to reflect on what it is that so many of us are looking for… the peace and serenity of living somewhere not so chaotic, busy, and artificial.
In my location, right now, it is almost unnaturally quiet, calm, and surreal… and I say that in comparison to where it is that most of us live. In contrast, what I am experiencing is actually very natural, and is the real world, the real thing.
While on this fact finding mission, I discover the stark contrasts in ways of life, especially as compared with our modern way of life.
Perhaps if I grew up living out here, in places like this, I would take it more for granted and it would seem less awesome. But the fact is that most of us have grown up in either mid-large towns, suburbia, or even the city – and have little in common with the real rural way of life, and the experience of its simple and natural beauty.
The challenge, of course, (to living away from the population centers) is survival. We are programmed to use our mainstream skills to work in the same main stream, to use paper or electronic credits to buy and take on loans for the things we need in order to live in the population centers, and we never know or learn the real skills of survival, the skills and know-how of self-sufficiency.
It is true that except for the hard-core, even rural living requires the ability to earn a living; however it requires much less, if we are willing to live a way of life that is less consumptive and more practical.
It is something to consider.
As I’ve gotten older (still closer to 50 than 60), I’ve become more aware of the risks that we face, especially the risks to do with our current financial system (debt based) which has seemingly reached or nearly reached a point of no return – where it must collapse or reset. My instinct tells me that when this happens, it has the potential to be quite destructive to our current modern way of life. The world has never before seen so much debt-based artificial wealth, and there has never before been such a disparity between the very rich and the rest of us.
This is not going to end well.
So as I enjoy the serenity of life in the boonies, my opinion solidifies even more-so; that is, I believe that some day perhaps soon, most of us will be forced to make do with much less. The question is… how many people will be able to deal with it, and what will happen next…Modern Survival Blog
Are you prepared?
