I live rurally for a few, very simple reasons: clean air and water, the space for my extended family, peace and quiet (mostly for meditation and study), and low rent (as in: none). I don’t recommend it for everyone, nor do I recommend city-dwelling.

Everyone ought to have the freedom to pursue their creative individual goals. I wish their goals included health and mindfulness. Indeed I think the goals of unlimited material wealth and possessions and meat at every meal are misguided and abusive – in fact are mindlessly creating the cultural nightmare that will almost certainly exhaust the earth’s resources for our children to have any comfortable standard of living. I wish a brighter future would also be part of peoples’ goals.

My personal goals are to be a model for mindful living, and an educator of health and awareness. I hope that others will be willing to listen to the ideas I present and look at my way of life, before assumptively pegging my position and attacking.

Hey, steakhouses are great! I love grass fed beef properly cooked – but anyone can cook a steak, and passing corn-fed beef as gourmet is a cop-out. I’ve encountered very few chefs who can make a vegetarian meal as satisfying and nourishing as a steak dinner – it’s possible, but requires real skill and artistry.

I don’t think of rural living as liberal and tolerant – most of my neighbors think of a shotgun as the great problem-solver. I’ve come face to face (or seed or flower or root) with the things that have to die for me to survive, and I’ve found that we have to get clear on how precious water is as a commodity – it doesn’t come out of a tap.

Some constructive feedback from my fans:

Educate people??? Should you not see it as sharing your views and giving people the chance to make up their minds?! My problem isn’t at all with your views/lifestyle choice – I think it’s pretty cool and think we’re singing off the same hymn sheet in more respects that you probably think – it’s the “we’re right and everyone who doesn’t agree with us needs educating” attitude that I had the problem with…

I can see that you’re taking liberties reading between the lines of my commentary and introducing more than a fair bit of conjecture as to my perspective and motives.  Nonetheless, I have taken a vow to interact with people in authentic and honest ways, even when they are appearing to attack me or just acting crazy. So:

Following the logical progression of this rhetorical argument (and it seems to be little other than rhetoric), anyone who educates people – your teachers, writers, journalists – are merely forcing an agenda on unsuspecting heathens. The error here is obvious, I hope: what other way to learn to write or operate a car or any of the millions of nuanced skills you utilize each day other than from someone taking the time to patiently educate you?  To cite personal experience, my students have told me that my classes are enjoyable and meaningful – on subjects from critical thinking, to creative writing, to fermenting foods, to the Eight Principles of Chinese medical theory, to T’ai Chi, to Shiatsu acupressure, and more – these students typically felt that I shared views and skills and let them decide how to use them.

In the case of living lighter and more simply on the earth as a personal path to wellness and resource conservation, I’ve found that when people are educated on the harm that their lifestyle causes, or a path to superior wellness, they typically embrace it.  There is plenty of evidence that western consumer capitalist culture is a dangerous blight to the continued homeostasis of the entire planet, not to mention keep countless humans and animals in slavery just to feed a wasteful habit – and I can point you to some sources if this information comes as news to you.

I recall watching the blissful film Amelie: I was so overjoyed by the film that I stepped outside and the weight of the ‘real’ world was crushing – I had been so deeply disillusioned by the film that I was unable to cope with even the minor irritations of daily life for a time.

Horrific stories for entertainment create the opposite problem: we hyper focus on others’ suffering to blunt or numb our own pain, or to shock ourselves from our own malaise – it’s exciting, but sadistic.  Be well aware, this includes daily news television programs and newspapers.

There’s a tendency in New Age circles to seek the bliss we are assured in Heaven, and it leads to a manic imbalance.  Of course we want happy stories to distract from our painful experience, but the more we seek the haze of fantasy, the less able we truly are to face inevitable pain and persevere.

It is in the fire that we are forged, our souls tempered to face the fear of abyss and annihilation that just precedes a full dissolution of ego/self leading to ultimate freedom.

What kind of stories do I like? Stories that reveal depth of consciousness, awareness of reality, aspiration to a greater ideal, compassion over villainy, heroes who forgive rather than destroy.  These stories are usually not clearly tragic or redeeming, but rather reveal with tenderness the bittersweet victories against our own weakness.

Ever see the film ‘Fight Club’? Most people can’t get past the apparent violence of the film, when in fact it’s a story about how we beat ourselves up, but in fact can use that momentous energy to transform ourselves and our world.

One of the many secret teachings of the film is that if we can’t face the horrible – either in ourselves [in identification with the characters] or our world [in the audiences' relationship to the film] – we will never be able to truly find beauty and liberation – by loving the messed-up characters, or seeing the deeper messages of the film. A nearly perfect movie that addresses these questions quite directly.

Be-In 7:00 …The Dandy Warhols Come Down The Dandy Warhols 

Rag & Bone 3:48 Icky Thump The White Stripes 

Shot By Both Sides 3:58 The Best Punk Album In The World (… Magazine 

Physical (You’re So) 4:31 Kings of the Wild Frontier Adam & The Ants 

Making Plans for Nigel 4:14 Drums And Wires XTC 

Buena 3:20 Cure for Pain Morphine 

Mood Swing 3:21 Fever In Fever Out Luscious Jackson 

Holes To Heaven 2:55 On And On Jack Johnson 

Pass It Along (MP3 Mix) 3:31 The Paintings of Henry de Groux Chumbawamba 

Rolling 3:36 El Oso Soul Coughing 

Miss Modular 4:29 Dots And Loops Stereolab 

In Particular 6:06 Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons Blonde Redhead 

Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin … 4:00 Amnesiac Radiohead 

Hy a Scullyas Lyf a Dhagrow 2:15 Drukqs (1 of 2) Aphex Twin 

Nylon Smile 3:19 Third Portishead 

I Thought You Were My Boyfriend 4:24 i The Magnetic Fields 

Return 3:45 Deine Lakaien 

Rabbit In Your Headlights 6:21 Psyence Fiction U.N.K.L.E. 

Rock And Roll Machine 3:42 Client Client 

Human Behavior 4:13 Greatest Hits Björk 

Useless 6:14 The K&D Sessions (Disc 1) Depeche Mode 

Tombstone 3:09 Fatherfucker Peaches 

Twiggy Twiggy [Twiggy Vs. James Bo… 4:04 Made In USA Pizzicato Five 

19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) 3:30 G-Sides Gorillaz 

Supermodel 5:25 Glee Bran Van 3000 

06 Ain’t Goin’ to Goa 3:56 Exile on Coldharbor Lane Alabama 3 

Papa Was A Rodeo 5:00 69 Love Songs Vol. 2 The Magnetic Fields 

Free Until They Cut Me Down (Demo) 3:25 Our Endless Numbered Days (Disc 2) Iron & Wine 

Like A Prayer 4:51 (Sinner) You Better Get Ready The Packway Handle Band 

Sweeping 2:59 Longjohns, Boots, and a Belt The Devil Makes Three 

Carolina Drama 5:55 Consolers Of The Lonely The Raconteurs 

Super-Awesome Romanian Shoes w/ Aftermarket Structural Support

These are my favorite shoes ever. Bought in Cluj, Romania at some shop for a little over a million lei (US$30 at the time).  Forest green with construction orange stripes.  Narrow flat sole, just enough to protect your foot, like a kungfu bootie; tightly laced, leather around the bottom and breathable mesh across the top.  Unfortunately, the mesh is prone to excessive wear: these shoes have worn out quickly due to the powerful upward curve of my big toe, so I’ve taken to repairing them sometimes with medical tape.  It’s an ok system, but they’re so comfortable and functional that I keep them around.

The temporary desking situation has become more permanent, I realize as I look back on the previous post made over a month ago.  As my parents hone their plans for building a house in Yankee Hill, and I settle into my new job in Chico as Technical Director of KZFR 90.1 FM, and my new wife Heatherlee continues to work at Heartwood – a 5.5 hour drive from Chico – so I find myself continuing to live freely in a back room of a month-to-month rental.  I’ve cleaned, bought a vacuum cleaner for the purpose, and sleep on an organic shiatsu futon on the floor.

What happens next?