ONDER what it would be like to live the way our ancestors were living 100 yrs ago. The year would be 1909--just on the brink of the industrial revolution life was not animated...yet the cities were already busting with activity and immigration was booming in the USA. Many came to stake a claim to their own future and actually began building the empire that this country enjoys today...sadly I don't see it as progress for all.This blog is my think forum, and today I'm thinking about progress and how far it has taken us away from the planet, our connection to it that is. This is kinda kinky, but here is what happened...I was visiting our bathroom the other day where we have developed leaks in both of the sink faucets and the toilet has a small drip also that will create a very annoying puddle on the floor so I have to keep constantly tightening the plastic nut at the back located in a very tight spot...so just contorting to reach it is a chore in itself. It caused me to say out loud...modern conveniences are a pain in the *ss.
The picture that popped into my mind was my grannie's outhouse...she never had to tighten one bolt, replace one faucet, or mop up one puddle!! She simply went out with her reading material and had a relaxing visit to her outhouse! No Stress involved...her mind must have been so clutter free...she had no running water, no electricity..she cooked on a wood stove and heated her home with a fireplace and a woodstove, she farmed and raised her own food, she worked HARD...but she had so much freedom and stress was not in her vocabulary....
Maybe she would have to oil the door hinge, and clear away some spiders webs from her outhouse but that's about it...she never had to mop it, never had to scrub the tile, never had to buy all those glass, tub, tile cleaners, never had to replace the flooring due to a leak ruining it....it was a NO STRESS solution to one of life's little problems...
So take our Modern bathroom for instance.
The tub is old n yucky and needs to be replaced we want to take out the tub altogether and put in only a shower..we never take baths anymore...because we don't have time to relax! So replacing that tub with a shower could cost upwards of $800
We did replace the toilet last yr, I did the labor myself with my sis's help so the toilet was $108.
We replaced the vanity top about 5 yrs ago, it had to be custom made to size that cost about $100.
Now today I have to purchase 2 new faucets and I know its going to be at the very least $100.
The modern lifestyle has taken away our "time" and taken away tons of thinking time that we may have filled with lots of joy, wonder, and meditation but instead we spend all our time trying to earning money and our energy and the money we work so hard to get, trying to keep all the modern conveniences going and up to date...I'm thinking a shovel, a bit of lumber and a couple days of sweat equity would give me a deluxe model outhouse---that would last for years to come and I may never have to invest another dime or thought on it!..
So anyways thinking of all the modern conveniences of our daily lives got me to thinking of how we occupy most of out thought process on solving the problems of keeping these so called conveniences going! Like the fridge, if it fails to work we have to replace it, if the air conditioner breaks we have to replace it, (these items are hardly cost effective to repair these days) if our car stops or has problems it cost a lot to repair it!.. The other day our electric power went off for about an hour...we didn't know it was off--so Mom was putting a load of laundry in the clothes dryer and when she pushed the start button, nothing happened...she immediately panicked and said "OUR dyer is broken." My mind immediately went into overdrive counting up how much money it would cost to replace that dryer...and it gave me about 5 minutes of very heavy stress...then I realized there was no power in the house...the dryer is working...but for that 5 minutes I was very stressed out...when in actuality all I would need to solve that problem is a length of rope and 2 trees and some clothes pins--maybe at a cost of $2.00 and that's all it would ever cost me! Problem solved for a lifetime!
Most of us have to work many hours of our life at a job that many of us don't enjoy, we trod off Monday-Friday begrudgingly...just to keep a modern lifestyle (the machines) going.
For many years I've entertained the idea of living off the grid just to see if I could reconnect to the natural state of mind and being that we humans were meant to live and if I could once again find comfort in that lifestyle. It would not be easy knowing that these "wonderful" machines are out there and for a price I could bring them into my life...and then it starts the constant struggle to keep them going, keep them performing to the standard that I wish them to perform at....If only we could create machines that could give years upon years of service, say a lifetime of service, that would be a different story...but the way we give up our lives (time=life) to keep these shoddily built machines going really puzzles me for what is the purpose???
I could get a bucket of water, wash my clothes, and hang them out to dry at the cost of maybe 2 cents...the way it is now I'm sure I have to give up a year of my life working at something to earn enough money to pay for the detergent, fabric softener, washer/dryer and electricity it takes to keep my clothes clean over my lifespan.
So you could say we give up our lives (our time working to earn money to keep our modern life going) and in the end we pass away and our life is over and all we have to show for it are 4 walls holding all our broken down machines-- that have to constantly be replaced, and another soul is born to be lost and enslaved to the machines.
I just think its bazaar
