That good book is bound intimately to this dreamy feeling-- "The Good Life" by Scott & Helen Nearing. I mentioned the book in an earlier post. It landed, literally, on our doorstep, thanks to the consideration of a good friend. We're paying it forward by mailing it to other friends, so they too can receive surprise inspiration, & maybe the postal service will stay alive for a few more years.
The Nearings consider health. Not only how to attain it, but what it is! Aptly, they describe that it's often defined in relief-- what it isn't. They seek a definition but they also seek its realization. Health becomes built into their life along with soil under nails from long hours growing garden-fresh food, placing stones in the walls to create shelter, and words on paper to offer their experience to others. Health is attended to the way my parents suggest I cultivate a retirement fund or a presence on the stock market. (I think my attention to health could potentially supplant at least the latter if not ease the former.) Offered as evidence, the Nearings cite a trip they took to China. They describe the practice common in this region, at that time, of paying doctors regularly until someone became ill. Then the doctor's fees were stopped until health was returned. Obviously, health was incentivized and disease treated as abnormal.
I would never want to suggest to judge or diminish the importance of treating troubling symptoms. I do love the idea of placing value & priority on enabling health. Thus, Chinese doctors often prescribed food, rest, or activity to prevent future bouts of illness (& loss of income). The Nearings juxtapose this versus the US system.
I also found myself highlighting the Nearings' description of visitors to their various farms. They write, "People wanted freedom at all levels-- freedom from work, from discipline, from community responsibility." I really respect their bravery in this characterization. Of course, they offer that they too were far from perfect. I've heard multiple visitors describe Scott, especially, as rigid & the dynamic between Scott & Helen as pretty paternalistic. They were also of a different age-- Scott was born before the dawn of the Twentieth Century. Most of the visitors they're referring to came into the 60s & beyond. I've often found within myself a sense of entitlement & laziness that I would love to excise. I'm seeking that fine line of self-respect coupled with a willingness to work my fair share & only consume my fair share. & I see within myself as well a longing for freedom, but not the counterweight, a longing to actively create & work for my freedom.
Scott & Helen write of finding a good deal of freedom by relinquishing a lot of materialism & living off of what they could grow, find, & re-create. All of this freedom cost a lot of consistent work & attention. Their visitors often wanted the fruits of the labor, without the labor.
From my vantage some of that sense of entitlement is generational & a lot of it is linked to class. I remember telling my grandmother that I chose to dry my clothes on a clothes line instead of using a dryer. She said, "But your grandfather & I worked hard so you wouldn't have to do that sort of thing." I responded, "I think your way was better."
The next time I visited her she held my hand. "Your hand is so rough!" She exclaimed. "Well," I answered, "I guess it's a few things. I wash my floors with a rag, squatting on the floor. & I've begun doing pull-ups at the playground across the street. I think both these things have caused calluses."
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