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Liam Dawson's avatar

Was your ascetic journey slow and steady Jack, or did you just go for it? I think there can be an inherent danger in repressing desires without filling them with something else. Something spirit-given. Do you think it's less giving up, or more like being filled with something, making the old ways irrelevant. As in "Life in all its fullness" John 10:10. Is that maybe where the "honest" ascetism springs from, where as the other could still be a bit self-serving.

I appreciate the way you and flatcaps and fatalism have conducted this conversation. Thanks to both of you for keeping the dialogue going.

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simclardy's avatar

Hi Jack, I like the title. Did you ever read Mark Boyle's book, The Way Home? He says he doesn't mind being a hypocrite (because people point out details of his life that are not primitive enough)-- and his lifestyle is far more authentic than we could ever aspire to. He also says that he likes to think of a spectrum between comfort and aliveness... the more comfort the less alive and so on. I have been realizing how much of a hypocrite I am. I have in many ways escaped the worst of the machine but am still swimming in it. Stuck in traffic the other day I felt so revolted and so depressed by the highway and the long lines of shiny vehicles, but there I was part of it all, adding to the congestion.

I am doing what I can over here in my corner. Waiting on the rest of the family to grow as ready as I am for a move to the country, little by little I feel the ship turning. You are right about property taxes... they are awful! Even in rural Maine they are 3,000 or 4,000 per year on some of the farms. Cheaper in West Virginia but then you never know if the mountain you live on will be torn open and your well polluted by mining chemicals. I wonder how Mark Boyle pays his taxes?.... must be by the writing. You could do that, I'll bet. I love the footnotes thing, that is your own unique style, making the footnotes almost as meaty as the essay. Thanks for writing and sharing your journey here. I look forward to hearing where you are led.

Clara

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