Well it's September 8th, which means we've been living the homeless life for 2 months now. Overall, the experience has been informative, fun, and transforming. And it still continues. I do not see ending this experiment anytime soon.
This has been one hell of summer. A cross country road trip, a vegas wedding, giving away most of our possessions, moving from a comfy apartment to living in a car (by choice), seeing my Dad after 8 years, and going Raw and Organic in addition to being Vegan. Also, it is when I finally researched and accepted being a high-functioning Autistic person, also known as an Aspie, short for Asperger's Syndrome. We see it as who we are, not something we "have". Whew! This is what appears to be many life altering changes in a short time. The truth, however, is that these changes were a long time coming. My tree may take a while to bear fruit, but when it does, WOW!
I can see the HBC (homeless by choice) life came to me after years and years of planning on that eventuality and fantasizing about it as a child. How many children do you know that think being homeless would be fun and adventurous? I did, and still do :) You spend a third of your life asleep. No choice in that. So what do you do with the other 16 hours a day, the other 2/3 of your life? Most will spend a third (or more) working. And not meaningful, enlightening, purposeful work either. Mindless physical labor and robotic repetitive actions is where the vast majority find themselves. Some of who's left find a better version of the slave labor game. They attain jobs that "seem" to matter, "seem" to be important, but any true unbiased reflection will show the hollowness of these endeavors. Jobs like engineers, management, investing, business owners and the like, all have enough "street cred" in this earthly prison system, that although they remain trapped and shackled like all the other prisoners, they hold a "trustee" status, where prisoners are made to look after the other prisoners and are given "perks".
So, that leaves 1/3 of your life left. From what I have observed, that third is spent either trying to recover from your daily slave labor, or "taking care of" your little future prisoners, your children. Video games, television, music, sports, chemicals, and sex are all ways we attempt to detach ourselves from the inner pain of being a slave. Similar things are used in real prison. I spent 3 years there, so I can see the similarities plain as day. As for children, they become a huge part of the parents life, and rightly so. However, most parents make a HUGE mistake; they feel the way they were raised is the "right" way. Even in this modern world, where so many different ways of doing things are considered "right", people still refuse to question their beliefs and assumptions, and then pass that faulty thinking on to their children! How else could atrocities of the past, like Slavery, denying women the right to own property or vote, etc, be carried on for hundreds or thousands of years? And are we truly so arrogant that we think all the "horrible" things of the past have been dealt with? What of war? What of treating our animal brothers and sisters like products instead of living beings? What of greed corrupting the minds of those in power to the point to where we are being fed poison in our food because it takes 20 years to kill instead of 2? What of using imaginary lines on a map to distinguish who is valid from who is invalid? What of us choosing to hurt others so that we may profit? The atrocities are not over. Many know this, but many do not. Many think we are at the pinnacle of human evolution and knowledge, and we are more enlightened now than ever. I disagree. We have just gotten much better at denial and the "appearance" of civility.
We, as humans, know something is wrong. It's in all our forms of expression. In music, in art, in literature, in religion. We know something is off, and that "knowing" can slowly drive us insane. "Like a splinter in your mind" as Morpheus says. So I choose to do something about it. I choose to "unplug". But I feel it's not really a choice at all. Like Neo, I can never go back. I would not want to, knowing what I know now. I have devoted the 2/3 of my life I spend awake, to being "awake". To see the world mindfully, to question, and as strength permits, to do the right thing. My shackles are off. Are yours?
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