Hey folks,
Okay, here’s an update since I last wrote:
Landlady didn’t like too much I couldn’t pay her rent. She contacted my dad. Dad and brother came out to Oregon, convinced me to move out. We planted the plants from the pond garden, transported my car with my belongings and flew to Atlanta.
I stayed in an Airbnb for a few weeks and visited therapists at my family’s request.
One therapist, named Vernelle, asked questions about my past. After sharing my story, I added… “I’m not upset with myself or anyone else… it’s the bigger picture… money system today, could be better… we need a program that supports people… we need some kind of funds program that supports people in exchange for sharing their truth… Today, this time, 2018… we’re in a transition period. We have new tools. We’re outgrowing old ways. We have to keep talking about it and we’ll get there.”
She said, “it sounds like you are in your own world and you are passionate about it. I think you should do your thing. You may be right.“
Another therapist named Floyd, said he was impressed with my resourcefulness and “psycho-economy” to maintain a nomadic lifestyle for over a decade. He asked what I thought was going on.
I said, “after working jobs in many locations, everyone, regardless of job or location, seems to be falling behind financially all the time. This creates a stressful and exhausting work environment.
I felt this way a few years ago and wanted to learn more about our money system. In doing so, I learned of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the document that began the banking system we have today. I searched online and, finding only a photocopy of the original document, I transcribed the 30-page Act and went through line by line to learn what it did.
I learned, among other things, the Federal Reserve Act formed corporate banks with the authority to print money at the expense of governments and citizens around the world. It created an environment that is as if everyone is standing in quicksand… each moment under this system, we accrue debt… through rent, utilities, insurance, interest. It doesn’t have to be this way. That’s my problem.”
Floyd said, “you know Aristotle said there are two kinds of people who don’t fit into the city-state: beasts and gods. Later Carneades and more recently Nietzsche, added a third kind of person who doesn’t fit into the city-state: philosophers. So of these three kinds of people… you’re not a beast, you’re not a god. Maybe you fit into the third category, maybe you’re a philosopher. I don’t see a mental illness though. Do you think you have a mental illness?
I said, do you think our culture has a mental illness? He said he did.
I share this with you to express I feel I have a clear mind. It was nice to have a conversation with a non-family/friend about what is going on in my life. It helped me to gain perspective:
In the last four years, I worked on four operating farms… in Tennessee California and Oregon…. growing market vegetables, cannabis and medicinal roots and flowers… I worked on two startup farms with landowners… in Georgia and Oregon…. And I tried to start three farms on my own … in West Virginia, Oregon and India… Each place was unique, though each place was faced with an environment where numbers fell through fingers like sand.
In this time between life chapters, I reflected and asked myself questions on what would be the next best step. I would prefer to have a conversation about how humans can more effectively work together … more than I would like to start a farm.
So I’m changing my approach. I sold my car, gathered gear and decided to walk to Mexico. If and when I arrive at the border, I’ll walk to the next border. When I reach the next border, I’ll go to the next. If I run out of funds, I’ll get a job and return to walking. A pilgrimage, perhaps, to settle a region of the Internet capable of providing basic needs and enabling each to share their truth.
America seems it is a project whose goal may have been to arrive at the Internet. We’re there. Everyone can be everywhere all the time. The Internet is transforming our world. How can we work with new tools to create an environment that inspires risk and enables everyone to be heard? What is the core information humans need to learn to produce more than they consume and kindly lead others to do the same?
These are the questions I’ll be thinking about as I push a bicycle cart on small roads and knock on folk’s doors asking to camp in their yard. I’ll sleep under a tarp, cook over a small flame and carry a solar panel as supplemental power for a laptop and phone. I’ll post updates of this trip on www.Permaville.com.
I started walking from Atlanta at the start of the Silver Comet Trail about two weeks ago. I’m about a hundred miles in, making my way across Alabama.
Okay, I’ll check back soon
Roll tide