I'm a good capitalist, but somehow I still feel empty

A friend is thinking about leaving a successful career, giving up on material possessions, residence and income, and simply walking, walking in the world under an open sky, until slowly, slowly, the pressure of modern life recedes, and she has a clear view of her inner world. (I do believe the plan was to have money available for food and shelter, don't worry.) My first reaction when I heard this was, of course, can I come too?

I’m willing to bet that anyone thinking about it would feel (before more practical considerations raised their ugly, dream-destroying little heads) the same tug, the same sense of what a delicious relief it would be to live a simplified life. Twenty-first century pilgrims, Kerouacs without cars, intrepid wilderness explorers without the wilderness, we’ll all take to the roads and byways... wait a minute. There’s something wrong with a culture in which people feel wistful about being free of the pressures of that culture. The world we have created for ourselves, this modern, commercial-industrial, growth-oriented world is intolerable to the human spirit.

Shouldn’t we just find a different way to live?

The Simple Living Network