homeless simplicity
8:33:00 PMI have a very odd fantasy. I want to be homeless. No, not permanently maybe for just a week or so.I don't intend to make a mockery, appear ungrateful or naive, or make being homeless seem simple and light. I realize that this subject is a heavy one, with hundreds of implications and potentials for disaster and offense. With this in mind, allow me to explain my reasoning. I have often thought to myself "what would people do if they didn't have to do anything?" Are your passions the expectations of others or are they something deeply rooted and immovable, your only method to self fulfillment? I've often thought that the only way I could ever truly discover my passions is to take away all excess. Maybe this would not only reveal positive but negative passions. If you take away your house, your car, your schedule, your job, your schooling, your identity essentially, and become a temporary wanderer, who are you? What are you? What do you miss? Do you miss Facebook more than your family? Your bed more than your job? Your friends more than good food? What do you do with your time? As I talked to my brother in law, a great man who was once homeless he reaffirmed this, said the experience is unparalleled. You may discover that you are one who sits back and simply lets life happen or you may discover you are one who takes action. The things I'm convinced I would learn I'm certain would be both liberating and destructive. What do you think about when you don't have to think about anything? What do you do when not a single obligation in the world exists? I once saw a homeless man standing on a high point, looking over the valley and I thought "he must know so much more about beauty than I do" He was gazing at an ordinary sight, something I'm sure the rest of us missed; yet he had the time to look, and the time to see that there was beauty in the ordinary, the rest of us observed, he saw. I don't want to try this just to say I've done it, as I do with many things, I simply believe this could be the most revealing, heart wrenching, evaluation of self. As well as the quickest way for me to recognize the necessity for personal change. I cannot imagine the gratitude, passion, beauty, and sorrow that would follow. I will do this someday, and I will tell you all about it.
3 comments
I love this idea. I think this train of thought is ingrained into each one of us in one way or another. That's why most of us are so enamored with travel, other cultures, new people... It's a step outside of ourselves, a sort of escape if you will. This is a life long quest of mine to really discover my true self, not just live, exist, achieve monetarily or materially, but to really just experience and learn.
ReplyDeleteI suggest reading a book called vagabonding - It might open your mind and set your course for this experiment.
Why do we have the same fantasies? I've wanted to be a homeless person for a year now.
ReplyDeleteAaron thanks for the book recommendation, I will definitely look into it. I love the addition you've made to my original train of thought, it makes so much sense and even gives me personal clarity as to what I actually meant and the root of this desire, something about the human nature truly wants nothing more than experience.
ReplyDeleteCallie. Great minds think alike. I don't really think there's much more to it.