I saw the article on the Yahoo homepage:
http://men.style.com/details/features/full?id=content_9817&
I admire him a lot. I’m a recent university graduate, and I feel like my life as it is lacks meaning. Sure, I need a job, but even if I had one, so what? I’d just be spending most of my life working for someone who’ll be paying me but at best would never really care about me. Is there any intrinsic meaning to it? I personally don’t care about being rich, it’s not like having a house or nice car or nice clothes would make me happier. But I live in a society where that’s valued. I lack passion in anything in life, and without a job will be nothing more than something to pay the bills.
However I have two problems with living that lifestyle:
1. I’m still an intellectual person. Even if I were homeless I’d still want to go to the library sometimes and read.
2. I might never find a girlfriend/wife, but even if I lived with money I might not find one either.
But even if I don’t exactly live like him, how do I get his life experiences – working in an Ecuadorean village, living in a Buddhist monastery, etc? I don’t know where to look for that sort of thing and with my degree in computer science I doubt I’ll be qualified for a job or volunteering.
And if I do, how do I get his survival skills?
Don’t get dressed for the job you have. Get dressed for the job you want to.
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Try camping out and living off the land, there are plenty of places where you can learn that. You might start with a boy scout manual and a few guides to edible plants and look around for survivalist clubs, they could help you learn those kinds of things. I’d bear in mind that there’s no way you can do that in or near a city, so a Library wouldn’t be an option, all that guy has for reading material is a Bible. If that’s what you want you’ll have to work toward it like anything else, but at least you’ll have an achievable goal.
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Survival is not a skill, since there is little choice involved.
What is not clear is how the “man without money” (MWM) moved from experience to experience. That might require money that the MWM is not mentioning. People like that tend to obscure some important facts.
Don’t assume that just because their experience are different from your experiences that they are more worthwhile or that they teach you anything that you cannot learn where you are at now.
Wisdom is understanding that the road has two ends and one is no better than the other.
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My friend,
You might want to give some hard thought to why your asking this question about how to live this lifestyle.
I’ve known a person or two like him.
He’s got a real eternal discipleship going on in his soul. He managed these things because it was the right thing for him to do and more importantly, for the right reasons.
That plane ticket would have materialized for him no matter what happened.
He’s an intellectual, and what necessary media doesn’t come his way, the teachers and students will.
I’m also sure he has a lady or two and they share a respect for each other.
If your looking for traveling and life experience without the chains, your in luck. You already have a computer. You can blog your experiences as you teach english around the globe, join the peace corps, write for a living, take photos, help the developing countries with their computers…
I worked my way across the country in national parks and met some fantastic people from around the world. As it was seasonal work, I was generally homeless from 2 to 4 months out of the year, and as a rule, I could pretty much take or leave getting an apartment.
When I am homeless here are my grumblings:
1. Finding someplace safe that I won’t be kicked out of. It’s a lot harder then you would possibly think in the U.S.
2. Refrigeration. It means I gotta scrounge every day. Unless i’m in a secure enough location (see #1) where I can dry food.
Sanitation takes common sense, showers are actually pretty easy to come by.
My advice? Do the peace corps, or teach english. You will have enriching experiences, you’ll find out alot about yourself without having to worry about condition 1.
The rest will take care of itself.
Good luck in your journey. Take it now while your still comfortable sleeping on the ground or in a third world hut.
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