Live the Good Life

Living the Good Life, available at Amazon

Of course not everyone wants to live like the Nearings did. Helen was raised as a vegetarian and Scott converted to a meatless diet after meeting her. In the beginning they continued to drink milk and eat eggs, but as they went along they decided against including any animal protein in their diet. They also precluded using animal manures in their gardens.

They had several reasons but the one that stands out to me was their consciousness of the lives their animal friends lived. Scott and Helen saw the raising of livestock (and even the keeping of pets) as equal to slavery. The Nearings saw the role of the farmer as one of a jail keeper, expending a great deal of time and energy on feeding and keeping the animals, doctoring them when they were sick as well as chasing after them when they escaped. This was time and energy which the Nearings believed could be better spent elsewhere. They also pointed out that the farmer was as much as a slave to his animals, having to be home and present every day of the year, to feed and milk and collect the eggs, with no easy way to take a day off or go on an extended vacation.

Scott and Helen were branded communists or socialists by the general public for their views on culture and society. They simply did not believe in things like going into debt and allowing someone else to make money by charging interest. They felt that rather than use money, a direct exchange of labor was preferable. They also believed in community supported ventures and lamented the fact that there were few such opportunities in their small Vermont community such as a cooperative babysitting arrangement, pre-school, bakery, cannery or other enterprises. They outlined a very sensible plan for the management of the common forest area owned by the town, which would have benefited all the citizens, but all for naught.

The Nearings did live in what today might be considered primitive circumstances, although at the time it was not that uncommon in most of the rural areas of the United States. They had no running water, other than a hand pump at the kitchen sink. (They built a Swedish style sauna in preference to a bathtub or shower). They lit their home by natural daylight and kerosene lamps, they had a composting toilet. The Nearings lived without electricity, computers, internet, television, telephones and other such modern luxuries and conveniences. They heated their home solely with wood.

Scot and Helen were very practical and analytical folks. They kept journals, they wrote out their goals and made ten year plans. This astonished their neighbors who thought that the Nearings were strange enough as it was. Each evening they discussed the day's projects and scheduled the projects they wished to accomplish the next day, often with a contingency plan for bad weather. They seemed to be masters at long term planning, which of course they had to be. To have good dry wood to burn to keep warm this winter, they had to start 12-18 months previous, felling trees and trimming thickets, sawing, splitting and stacking the wood to dry. (The same with their lumber for building, all of which came from their property. They even built a special lumber shed in which to dry the boards for their cement forms, roofs, paneling and furniture).

The same for their food supply. This winter's food was grown the past summer, but the compost they spread on the soil in the spring was the result of work done building compost piles the year before. Thus this winter's cabbages required planning and labor going back as far as two years.

Of course most people today do not want to be so meticulous and plan their lives in such a way. Also many of you are probably thinking, "Didn't they have any fun?" The Nearings did have a lot of fun. They generally reserved Sundays as a day of rest from their 'bread labor', doing only the minimum of housekeeping and cooking most of the time. They held an open house where people interested in 'going back to the land' could come by and visit and tour the place. Scott and Helen both played musical instruments, as did some of their friends that came to visit. Sunday afternoons might also involve lively debates, poetry readings or game playing. Or simply, if no visitors came along, a day of resting, reading and writing.

Even today there are many lessons that we can learn from the Nearings, especially as the United States and even much of the world appears to be on the brink of economic collapse.

The Nearings kept account of how many man-hours it took to produce a product. Instead of selling things with a profit in mind, they set their prices based on the average local wage and the number of hours it took to produce. When possible they traded for things they did not produce themselves, based on an exchange of labor hours. They tapped their maple trees and made maple syrup, which became their basic cash income product. They also traded their maple syrup to friends living in Florida and California in exchange for citrus fruit, again based on the exchange of labor time. Imagine if even part of your local economy followed this model instead of the profit, profit and more profit model currently in use?

Some lessons I've learned from the Nearings:

*Write down your goals.
*Make a plan for achieving your goals.
*Every day review your goals and your plans. Adjust as necessary.
*Keep accounts, not just of money in and money out, but of value, whether based on labor hours or some other measurement.
*Don't work 7 days a week; always have a day of rest and reflection.
*Enough is enough. When you have enough, stop working!
*Don't go into debt. Then you are a slave to the bank.
*Use trade and barter whenever possible.
*Give back to your community.
*Enjoy the simple pleasures in life; a beautiful day in the garden, good friends, good food, a job well done.
*Take care of your tools.