.is .....under development.
i FAR prefer handwriting these days. Simple cheap fountain pen.... no noise, even of laptop processors....silence.
And i usually write outdoors so outdoor writing season fast approaches.
I shall write up the many stories of simplest off grid, but also (ex campaigner/ activist) on grid life - simplifying, economising...by splendid necessity.
Long ago I started to ponder deeply the best words to use - not "big words", in fact the opposite - good descriptive words that the majority would resonate with. Easy words. I don't even like the word 'campaigner'. Forever, ever since we stopped being landlopers of the stone age, 'power' - the local big man, needed standing up to.
Simply 'truth to power' or the like.
And of course we do not speak 'to' anyone. We speak "with". In fact last year I went over to the word "share" in that there seems so much preciousness and sensitivity these days.
"universal human rights" and egalitarianism, are simple words most understand and do not pick a fight with.
Malcom Gladwell's "bottom third" always need to be looked after. There is no judgement in that phrase. There are many reasons poor being poor, from sickness, to being a single parent, and many others in between.
One of my problem words is 'zen'. So often rather stretched into something 'more' in the last 20 years, of in my opinion, far too many 'gurus' without that much genuinely useful to share. And then so many links in to 'Eastern' philosophy that is somehow considered (among elite circles in places like London) to be far superior. Well, 'Buddhism' didn't prevent the Buddhists of the region committing a genocide against the Rohingaya people in 2016. So much for Buddhism being a calling only ever of peace.
Anyway i have little interested in grand politics any more - none of our Western leaders seem to be able to speak of REAL peace that for example the superb film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerines_(film) dealt with so poignantly - all conflict is cant and vanity. And the last year hearing the calls to only war by seemingly everyone, means, sadly, so much great writing and even filmmaking of the past 100 years seems forgotten. There is always a way to peace.
My real efforts are now only focused in writing stories of the actual simple zen of living simply. Which incidentally can often be at first scary -often involving overcoming revulsion at reduced circumstances - one example the first time a year ago i had run out of cooking gas and was stuck up in the hills of Mid ales and wished to stay where i was, but supplies were running low and i pondered eating a raw egg: "oh my god.... life has come to this Stone Age existence..." Having discovered i not only did not throw up but far more importantly get mopre out of the raw egg, and it is such a quick convenient near daily protein snack, i have a few raw eggs if getting peckish and time is short, regularly in the week.
This is a Black swan Event
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
I know psychology and to me it is one of the truly useful root aspects to the mind. We ALWAYS fear a change - especially when we assume we have a 'choice'. But we simply cannot ever imagine how we will ACTUALLY feel once the event or changed has occurred.
Lets just say there is almost always a silver lining even of the most 'extreme' personal events that at the time seem only 'negative'. And certainly no workshop or even guru can ever assist moving on as they are so often periods, or events, which a rational or loving person would never suggest to their most beloved human. That is the point - they - those through which we positively evolve, are almost never the changes we would recommend to people. In fact many are on the face of it almost 'dangerous'. Many, the gurus CANNOT recommend as their insurance premiums would go through the roof.
And i have largely dedicated myself to for over a decade writing or video diarising these Black Swan events...or 'transitions' perhaps a better way of describing them. They all end up in total real zen. Not fake zen. But i wish there was a better word for that arrival.
And then they - my stories of simplest living via change, written by hand, shall be photographed and put here as jpeg inserts. The film is for..???... hhhmm not sure really, except someone influenced me this winter to let go and go fully digital... all the way, including rather good film of naked man bathing in the river midwinter...
But i don't do cheap gimmicks or clickbait.
Good writing has to be there (here) first....it already is in a million messages and emails hahh hahh ...
But that era is over.
Handwritten nice slow ponderous and musing, hand writing, only...soon. It all 'precipitated' into my many notebooks, of late. And i waste nothing.
And as the cost of living - energy, food, and interest rates, are guaranteed to be high for years to come - all these Black swan moments and BEing in simplest mode possible - which yes may just be for reasons of economising, could not be more timely. I really don't like to blow my own trumpet, but off and on for 20 years i have lived off grid - about 5 of the last 20 years in hidden away camping grounds in a small caravan or van - including the last year roaming by very small live in van, and i never ever meet anyone with whom i can speak of keeping it all as UKTRA simple as possible. So, i do know i have useful things to share here. Which i ONLY have the time and energy to do, because i so super simplified my own life - needs etc.. that i can live almost on nothing and do have all the time, and energy - that is key!, in the world available to write up this well. And as i love it all - i will, as it makes me...happy.
