How did this all start? Well, I suppose it started a long time ago if I really look deeply at it--with growing up on small farm in rural Massachusetts. But it all really started to take shape a few years ago when I read a book by Elizabeth Gilbert entitled The Last American Man. This book chronicled the life and ideals of a man named Eustace Conway. The story of Eustace's life made me get serious about seeking some alternatives--to start getting serious about getting more connected.

"I live," Eustace said, "in nature, where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, and so is its passage around the sun. The course of water over the earth is circular, coming down from the sky and circulating through the world to spread life and then evaporating up again. I live in a circular teepee and I build my fire in a circle, and when my loved ones visit me, we sit in a circle and talk. The life cycles of plants and animals are circular. I live outside where I can see this. The ancient people understood that our world is a circle, but we modern people have lost sight of that. I don't live inside buildings, because they are dead places where nothing grows, where water doesn't flow, and where life stops. I don't want to live in a dead place. People say that I don't live the real world, but it's modern Americans who live in a fake world, because they've stepped outside the natural circle of life.[...]

Do people live in circles today? No, they live in boxes. The wake up every morning in the box of their bedroom because a box next to them started making beeping noises to tell them it was time to get up. They eat their breakfast out of a box and then the throw that box away into another box. Then they leave the box where they live and get into a box with wheels and drive to work. , which is just another big box broken up into lots of little cubicle boxes where a bunch of people spend their days sitting and staring at the computer boxes in front of them. When the day is over, everyone gets into the box with wheels again and goes home to their hous boxes and spend the evening stating at the television boxes for entertainment. They get their music from a box, they get their food from a box, they keep their clothing in a box, they live their lives in a box! Does that sound like anybody you know?"

YES!!!

"Break out of the box!" Eustace said. "You don't have to live like this because people tell you it's the only way. You're not handcuffed to your culture! This is not the way humanity lived for thousands of years, and it is not the only way you can live today."

This quote had a powerful effect on me, and this book inspired me to start learning new ways to live. Funny thing, the "old" ways are the ones that have felt the best so far. I'm not saying that this is the right way...though Eustace seemed pretty sure...this is all just part of an ongoing search for a different way, because I'm not satisfied with the model that we have. I can say that this tipi thing feels good to me though--it's got me excited.

Thank goodness for wonderfully supportive and like-minded spouses!