Simplicity

There is something especially appealing about Alaska that I did not mention in my previous post. Simplicity. I have been searching for this all my adult life. While a life of simplicity seems boring to many, it is truly the life I seek. I would love to live a life where I had no car – nothing to fix or maintain, freedom from traffic and road rage, no gas stations or car payments. I would love to live in a village where there aren’t any pretentious chain restaurants with bland, boring food –where living off the land is second nature and respect for both the land and the weather is necessary to maintain some degree of sanity. I do not need a large circle of friends or a parade of personalities and acquaintances to keep me satisfied. My husband and I appreciate our alone time but that alone time can be as simple as sitting on opposite ends of the couch reading different books. The life I am living currently, surrounded by consumerism and wasteful tendencies brings me little pleasure. Despite my practical tendencies, however, I am often extremely impatient. Alaska seems so far away, hidden in one sided blogs and one-sided propaganda. I am reduced to watching from afar and living vicariously through others until I finish my degree. The time is good, I tell myself, and will bring me to a position in which I will be able to offer the best to my students and the district I will be working for. Freedom to me does not mean the ability to go wherever I please in my polluting automobile or the ability to watch whatever I please on my television. Freedom to me means freedom from all of these society imposed expectations, the need to get caught up in the rat race and make more money to buy more things. Freedom to me is living as I choose in cooperation with others, not at the sake of others.