Finding Food

Sometimes I like to compare myself to a duck.

In order for a duck to eat, it must swim around and forage for food. To find food it must sometimes dive down under the water and stretch out it's neck in order to reach the grasses on the pond's bottom.

In order for me to eat I must go to the grocery store and pay money to buy food. To do that I must work at my job, which most recently involved attending a conference focused on "advanc[ing] higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology." Today I networked with a guy from Penn State and we talked about creating web-based games to simulate international trade.

Yes, that is what I did today in order to eat.

The Amish

This weekend I took a trip out to Amish country, just east of Lancaster, PA. I really enjoyed it. It was beautiful and relaxing as one might expect, but it especially struck a chord in me because I have been thinking a lot about intentional communities, what it takes to make them work, and if they are worth it.

At one point, I found myself driving on some backroads where I looked out the window and saw rolling hills, farmland, grape trellises, squash blossoms, and chickens running around. I saw kids and parents and grandparents in their simple Amish clothing spending time together in a beautiful outdoor setting. I saw these things there was no question in my mind, but that this is a wonderful thing. So that takes care of the 'is it worth it' question.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to ask the 'how do they do it' question. How do the Amish balance the separation of themselves from the larger economy with some yielding to the inevitable effects of living in the year 2011.

To separate themselves, they have separate schools for their children, and for their adults they allow only those jobs that existed during biblical times, such as farmer, carpenter and blacksmith. Also they remain literally 'off the grid' in that they are not connected to any electrical lines, and in addition do not watch TV or use the internet.

However, they still use technology. In fact they use a lot of appliances, the just power them using propane or compressed air. Also, they might eat at McDonalds or shop at Target, there are no rules about which stores or restaurants they may visit.

You can browse on the internet and find 100's of intentional communities starting or recently started, but so many of them fail after a few years. The Amish have been around for more than 400 years. It is impressive!

Adapting to the Modern World

There are things that bother me about living in a city. There are strangers everywhere. I feel lonely. Life is complicated. Life is busy. There is noise and concrete everywhere.

When I'm overwhelmed by all this I like to daydream about what my heaven would be. In heaven I would live with a small group of interconnected people. I would work and socialize with the same people maybe even at the same time. Life would be simple. There would be beautiful natural places.

Taking a look at the things I listed, I realize that my heaven sounds a lot like primitive life. It sounds like living with a tribe in the woods, or living in a small fishing village on a coast. Minus the disease and famine of course.

I doubt this is a coincidence. I am adapted to a certain kind of life, because my ancestors lived this life for thousands of years. And yet here I am in a new and very different environment and I'm not adapted to it.

I am curious. Will humans adapt to modern life? Will the louder tougher faster humans, the ones who are more fit for living in a modern world eventually beat out the other humans and thus the species will evolve?

Or will humans change modern life so that it more closely matches what they have evolved to over thousands of years. Maybe businesses will close on Sundays again. Maybe there will be a renaissance of small towns with tight knit communities and thriving downtowns. Maybe they will build lots of parks.

Five Things I Would Change About My World

What five things would I change about my world if I could? It's a real basic question. In fact it reminds me of an essay I might have been assigned to write in middle school. But I think its a good question for any adult to think about.

So this is what I would change....

1) People would be nicer to each other. They would look you in the eye, and smile when they pass you on the sidewalk. They would respect each other. They would be tolerant of people's faults.

2) There would be fewer people. I'm convinced that many problems in this world stem from overpopulation. Environmental problems, economic problems, etc...

3) More small businesses. I think this would make a more stable economy and cause less unemployment. It would also be better employment. Someone working the register in a family run shop tends to be happier about being there that someone working the register in a Walmart. It would also make the places we live in nicer. Having a downtown, or being able to walk to a grocery store, these are very nice things.

4) People would have more free time. Shorter work week. More vacation time.

5) It would be easier to have an interconnected community of people that would last for a long time. Some places where you might find this are in an extended family, or a tight-knit town community. But however such a community comes about is not-important, what is important is that it exists.

HONORABLE MENTION:
More open space. Less suburban sprawl. More parks.

First Post

I had a blog for a long time about working in a big desert in Oman... now I will create the complement to that blog: a blog about working in a big city in the USA. This blog will likely contain some technical computer programming stuff, some philosophizing about world issues, some interesting tidbits about Philadelphia and some tidbits about cooking and gardening. I hope I can create something interesting for you to read. I also hope I can help myself become a better communicator. Well, here I go!