Tomorrow marks three weeks of living in the motorhome on a farm in Ojai, California. Feels like much longer, as every day is filled with challenges. The shrinking pains of fitting myself, my dog, and my stuff into such a small space would be enough of an adjustment, but that was only the beginning.
Asking for help, especially in the form of financial assistance, is not something that comes easy to a lot of people – myself included. Having a self-sufficient streak serves you well when you don’t really have a family to lean on or any other solid net to fall into.
Today marks the end of an era for me, and the eve of a new one. In early 2010, when I returned to Southern California after a big circling of North America, I landed in a little homesteading compound in Ventura.
There’s a fantastic tune by singer/songwriter Kim Richey that I was reminded of today. It’s “A Place Called Home” from her album Rise — one of my all-time favorites — and it’s particularly astute in both its meaning and timing.
This little journey’s pace is quickening. It’s almost as if, by me letting go of the search for a job and focusing on the living of a life, the universe has risen up to meet me, to support me, to hurtle me forward along my way. So I’m just going with the flow.
The ever-insightful Douglas Rushkoff published a piece on CNN.com the other day that absolutely validated this new pursuit I’m engaged in of shucking off the shackles of looking for a job in order to focus on helping people. Using the title — “Are Jobs Obsolete?” — as a premise from which to launch, Rushkoff examines the American obsession with employment and posits an interesting counter-point.
When I was a kid, my father had a little handy man business on the side that he called Elsewhere. His slogan was, “When you’ve tried everywhere else, try Elsewhere.” That’s sort of where I am in my life.
One of the things I’m most passionate about is being of service to others, contributing to the greater good. With your support, I can put that passion to good use.
As our national economic woes wear on, nonprofit organizations around the country are being tasked with finding solutions to numerous community crises. In Sonoma County, California, as in other towns, one of those groups tackles two issues with one fell swoop.
In response to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi passing a law that would open their country’s public water utilities up to privatization, voters recently issued a resounding cease and desist order of their own. Some 96% of Italian voters chose, instead, to keep their water supplies in the public domain, to protect them as the precious commons that they are.
When the 2012 inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were announced recently, I had an especially sweet twinge for several of the names. I’ve been fortunate in my life to have had some exciting jobs and situations that allowed me to hang with super-cool, often famous folks. And it just so happens that a couple of those folks were among next year’s honorees.
When I was a kid in the ’70s, television shows alternated between subversively edge (think Soap, All in the Family, Sanford & Son) and almost Puritanical (The Brady Bunch, The Love Boat, Donny & Marie). For video games, we loved our Pong until Atari finally came along. It was a simpler time, in many regards.
The Bangles are making the promo rounds as they support their new album (Sweetheart of the Sun) and tour. One of the most common statements heard in the interviews is how good they look, especially Susanna. It’s true. As she nears 53, she looks better than she ever has and not really a day over …
Tomorrow marks three weeks of living in the motorhome on a farm in Ojai, California. Feels like much longer, as every day is filled with challenges. The shrinking pains of fitting myself, my dog, and my stuff into such a small space would be enough of an adjustment, but that was only the beginning.