Exactly what determines where we live on this immense blue-green
sphere we call Mother Earth? What determines our individual definition
of home? How far must some of us travel to find a place that really
feels like home? Do our feelings about "home" change as we grow older,
develop sensitivities to environmental pollution or just become
exasperated with out of control population growth?
 Is your current
location the most ideal you can visualize, and if not, what prevents
you from actualizing your dreams? There are forest folks dwelling in
the desert, land-locked sailors, country folks barely eking
out a living in the city and millions of other displaced folks all
out of synch or alienated from their current surroundings. These
unhappy folks are immobilized by habits and the fear of the unknown.
We all have different views based on past experiences. If we do
not always agree with fellow Gentle Survivalists, it is because we do
not all have the same shared experiences. People who have lived rurally
from day one have a hard time understanding the fear and alienation
that a city dweller accepts almost for granted. City dwellers cannot
imagine adopting a "Green Acres" mentality when past experiences with
strangers
have been guarded and defensive. Add to this mix the fact that crime
is increasing at a disproportionate rate in the country and we have a
situation where folks everywhere are questioning the wisdom of simply
moving to the country because it is less populated.
TGS has always encouraged folks to get out to the country, even
if only 30 or so miles from the small city one works in or centers
their social activities around. In the Bible, Isaiah counsels, "Woe
unto them who join house unto house, that lay field to field, til
there be no place."
As Gentle Survivalists, we know wilderness is integral to our
spirit bodies, that it nourishes and strengthens us for our own
personal missions. When we see it threatened with over-development,
water depletion and road building, we are saddened and angered. We
feel it a direct threat to our well being, just as though someone were
strangling off our air supply, which is exactly what happens when
oxygen producing vegetation is bulldozed and covered over with houses,
cement and asphalt.
We may not have all the answers, but know we can make a difference
with prayer and work, for as Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary
for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
While we are disillusioned with the military-industrial complex
that to a great extent runs this country, we still have the right to
protest, speak out and write letters to our representatives. In other
countries, these rights that we take for granted are completely ignored.
Incredibly, about 50% of Americans have voluntarily surrendered their
voting rights by not voting.
Employers can bind their employees to a certain area or displace
them at will with no thought of "home" or "place" or what it means to
the individual. To most folks it is not a matter of what feels right
and good, but where they must live to make a living . . . if it can be
called that. Families are constantly being broken up by the lure of
more money in some distant location. To find relief from this
disconnected life, many seek refuge in a summer home or cabin, even
a winter hideaway.
As Gentle Survivalists, we demand more for ourselves than a brief
respite from the insanity of being a cog in the great wheel
of "progress." We are dedicated to downscaling our standard of
living to escape the slavery of economic pressures that advertisers
create for us with artificial "needs." Many of us have been to the
edge of life and know that we won't be taking any of our
material "stuff" with us. We know that we were not created to be
gatherers of material goods, but gatherers of light and knowledge.
Truth, love and service are the only things we'll be packing for our
return journey to the light from whence we came.
The scriptures state that we must first seek the kingdom of God,
and all else shall be added. If our desires are to live simply and help
our brothers and sisters do the same, God will free us from the habits
and fears that keep us chained to economic slavery and allow us to seek
out the place we need to be. He will give us all that we need to be
comfortable and happy, but first we must serve him and not the gods of
merchandising.
Many who are chemically challenged or environmentally ill feel at
the mercy of outside powers oppressed by the chemical imbalance that
industrialization has forced upon us. Too often, we seek direction from
the very ones who perpetuate the problems.
It is past time for us to declare independence from this cycle of
destruction by simplifying our lives,
seeking out and encouraging others who are trying to do the same, and
look outward with courage towards safer and less polluted places to live.
If home is where the heart is . . . we must learn to follow our hearts.
If we do, we will find that "place" that real home that always seems to
elude us.
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