Chris Maus
Sunday - December 18, 2005
Radiation Treatment - December 16, 2005
index
I recall a time when I was in fifth grade and ran away from home for about half of the day. I didn't get very far and was very lucky I made it home. My plan was to go live (hide) at the cabin my family owned up north. Getting there was the problem and not well thought out. The fantasy of living in the woods (off the land), away from everyone was very appealing even when I was in the fifth grade. It took me a few decades to get at least closer to that ideal...
I started re-reading Walden by H. D. Thereau a few years ago. My motivations for moving to my cabin in the woods are the opposite of his. Once I got to that part of the book I stopped reading. The comments from my friends regarding the uni-bomber also pissed me off and made me laugh at the same time.
Having reached the point of feeling affluent, realizing that my happiness was NOT tied to the "work" I was doing, I had to make a major change in my life to feel happy(sane). The "cost of living" in the woods is considerably less than the "cost of living" in Chicago. Making the decision to head to the woods was easy. The stress of my job was replaced by the stress of simple living. Economics became the primary force in most of my decisions at that point. What does it cost to...? and, is there a better and cheaper way to do it? Most of the time the answer is, it's better to do it this way but it costs a lot more... Then the question becomes one of true "need"... the simple life.
A warm, dry, safe place to sleep and food to eat are the only "real" requirements for this life. Everything else is a "want".
The statement that goes something like, "Happiness is wanting what you have, not, having what you want.", comes to mind...
All my journals (not blogs) have a little reminder for my Self...