all purpose blah blah blog

I figured at some point, I ought to write something about why this blog exists. Its starting point was a homeschool blog. We're an unschooling family, and if you've read anything by John Holt, you'll know what that means. If not, it means that we all of us follow our passions in life, learning about what we desire to know about, acquiring skills, making friends, having good times and exciting experiences, spending time with each other, etc. In other words, living life to the fullest we can.

We are also an unjobbing family, and if you haven't read Michael Fogler's book on the matter (I've heard it's out of print), that means that we do the minimum we have to, to get by. We do have jobs, but we don't have careers. We are not attached to them. And we have a lot more time to live life as described in the unschooling bit.

It's weird to say unschooling and unjobbing, because those are negations, and what are we really for? Well, we stress the relationships we have, with each other and our community of friends and families. We have fun and spend our time doing things we enjoy and with people we enjoy, as much as we can.

Years ago, Don and I wore suits for most of our waking hours (he constrained in tie and me in bra and hose and required high heels), and we spent time away from our office/cubicle in other giant boxes lit with fluorescent lights furiously spending our lives away, or in our combustible engine machine flittering to and from all the fluorescent lights. We got deep into debt, and we were unhappy living that way. But we didn't see any way to make things change. We read a book by Daniel Quinn, and later Derrick Jensen, we found CrimethInc. literature, and made friends with people who were interested in a different way, far from the work-consume-die lifestyle. We read the book Unjobbing right before Kaleigh came to live with us, and the rest is a glorious history.

We halved our income, then halved it again, and now half it again. And despite cutting our income, we managed to pay off our large middle-class debt. Now we live in "deep poverty" according to the government, but I don't feel impoverished (at least most of the time!). In fact, I feel quite rich in community, wealthy in passions, full of my family and friends. It is a contented life we lead, even if we don't do all those things that we are supposed to do in this American world.

I guess that is more the history of how we ended up in this weird place rather than the purpose of this blog. This blog, I suppose, is to show people who are looking for a different way that there are many other worlds possible. For people who are already living full lives, I am interested in sharing my experiences, and reading the experiences of others.

I enjoy living a fulfilling life and following my passions and interests wherever they may wander. I seek to become delirious, to leave the rut, the cultivated furrow. Surely there is a broader world that lies outside of middle-class suburbia and urban or rural ghetto. I aim to find it, and if I'm lucky, discover I am already living in the garden of eden.

--c