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Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton's permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees' wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton's offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled. There, he befriended her eclectic neighbors -- organic farmers, biofuel brewers, eco-developers -- and discovered a sustainable but imperiled way of life. In these pages, Powers not only explores this small patch of community but draws on his international experiences with other pockets of resistance. This engrossing tale of Powers's struggle for a meaningful life with a smaller footprint proposes a paradigm shift to an elusive "Soft World" with clues to personal happiness and global healing.… (más)
charliemarie: Nick Rosen's book is an interesting survey of different ways people live off grid, while William Powers' is an insightful memoir of one man's experience of off grid living.
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The author William Powers had spent ten years as an international aid worker in war zones and the farthest reaches of the South American jungle.
When he returned to the US for a recharge, Jackie Benton of North Carolina offered himthe use of her permaculture farm while she was traveling. It included a self-sustaining garden, orchard and a completely -off-the-grid twelve foot square cabin. Off the grid means there was no electricity, internet or even water. Instead there were candles, wood heat, a composting toilet and a solar heated shower using water from the nearby creek.
Powers came to appreciate the luxuries of a simple life, even completely giving up his car for a bike. He luxuriated in the time to write, and get acquainted with his neighbors who had also left the hustle of daily life for the more simple existence of the creek. He estimated that he reduced his carbon footprint to 5% of the American average- similar to what he had seen in the developing countries.
And he had much time to think and philosophize as the following two quotes show:
“What’s sin?’ I asked her (Leah). ‘For me,’ she finally replied, ‘sin is when I’m the center.” P 196
“We’d been talking about our inner flatness, how we were habituated to a central evil of our time what the late Susan Sontag called ‘an American-style consumer society that spreads itself across the globe, destroying the past, and enclosing all horizons within a selfish materialism”. P 196
I don’t think it’s a lifestyle that many Americans want to emulate - and indeed many of his neighbors had to give up or change their idealistic choices. But there are lessons here as we reexamine our places in a world that will look substantially different to the next generations. ( )
Very thought-provoking. Sometimes it was a bit too intimate with the author's thoughts, but there were also times of good insight. Worthwhile reading. ( )
DNF I wanted more of the "how to" and less of the philosophy. I enjoyed the philosophy to a point and then it started to sound repetitive. I read about 1/2.
It's not often that I read a book and decide that I need to own a physical copy of my own. However, I feel like this work is so rich with life-lessons and philosophy that I'll be reading it many more times throughout my life. It may seem strange to give it only 4 stars but read it yourself to see why. ( )
I started this but didn't get a chance to finish it before it was due back at the library (with a hold waitlist). My husband got to it first and really enjoyed it, so I do want to get back to it someday.
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, julst learn to become quiet and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. - - Franz Kafka
There is another world, but it is in this one. - - Paul Eluard
Dedicatoria
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
"I know a doctor who makes eleven thousand dollars a year," my mother said.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Part of the joy of simplifying one's material life is that you don't have to work long hours to buy and maintain a bunch of stuff.
Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton's permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees' wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton's offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled. There, he befriended her eclectic neighbors -- organic farmers, biofuel brewers, eco-developers -- and discovered a sustainable but imperiled way of life. In these pages, Powers not only explores this small patch of community but draws on his international experiences with other pockets of resistance. This engrossing tale of Powers's struggle for a meaningful life with a smaller footprint proposes a paradigm shift to an elusive "Soft World" with clues to personal happiness and global healing.
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When he returned to the US for a recharge, Jackie Benton of North Carolina offered himthe use of her permaculture farm while she was traveling. It included a self-sustaining garden, orchard and a completely -off-the-grid twelve foot square cabin. Off the grid means there was no electricity, internet or even water. Instead there were candles, wood heat, a composting toilet and a solar heated shower using water from the nearby creek.
Powers came to appreciate the luxuries of a simple life, even completely giving up his car for a bike. He luxuriated in the time to write, and get acquainted with his neighbors who had also left the hustle of daily life for the more simple existence of the creek. He estimated that he reduced his carbon footprint to 5% of the American average- similar to what he had seen in the developing countries.
And he had much time to think and philosophize as the following two quotes show:
“What’s sin?’ I asked her (Leah).
‘For me,’ she finally replied, ‘sin is when I’m the center.” P 196
“We’d been talking about our inner flatness, how we were habituated to a central evil of our time what the late Susan Sontag called ‘an American-style consumer society that spreads itself across the globe, destroying the past, and enclosing all horizons within a selfish materialism”. P 196
I don’t think it’s a lifestyle that many Americans want to emulate - and indeed many of his neighbors had to give up or change their idealistic choices. But there are lessons here as we reexamine our places in a world that will look substantially different to the next generations. ( )