Basic Needs
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
In my last post I told how I first began to suspect there was more to life than having a job and making as much money as possible as fast as possible. First, because of the hemorrhaging of money from my paycheck before I got it. Second, because of the cost of things I needed just to have the job.
I kept working at the factory because I applied for and was accepted into an excellent apprenticeship program and got a valuable education. I took part-time jobs for extra money and for interesting new work experiences. I was smart enough to know I needed skills in order to get jobs. After about seven years I had worked four full-time jobs and more than 20 part-time jobs.
There were usually part-time jobs available which required the skills I had learned. I felt safer in knowing that I could do a variety of things to keep the money coming if I lost my full-time employment. A good strategy, but I still had not put the best plan together.
Eventually I realized that fear of having no money was influencing me too much. What I lacked was security. Even with some savings in the bank the fear remained because something could so easily happen that would take it all away. Everything I did required money. Without it I was sunk.
That was when the fog began to clear. It was during the back-t0-the-land movement and I was reading all I could about it. The Nearings and Ken Kern were my favorite authors. What came through to me was how successful these people were with so little money. They, and many others, were doing well because they did things for themselves instead of paying for it with money from a job.
I could write all month about my revelations but it boiled down to what I call “The Facts Of Life.” I asked myself, ‘What are the basic necessities of life?’ After making long lists and distilling them down I came up with three categories: Food – Shelter – Security. All other subjects fit into one of these categories.
Food is obvious. It includes all things concerning food. Shelter is about a place to live and all things relevant to that. Security is the biggest category because so many matters in life involve staying safe. I am sure readers of this website and BHM are very aware of these three Facts Of Life or something close to them.
We have visitors coming today, new ones and an old friend. We are going to discuss self-sufficiency. I look forward to learning some things. The new friends are Amish and have generations worth of knowledge.
