I'm sure you have some stuff... in order to live? But did you really not accumulate things in life you value(d) enough to keep - mementoes? Books? So can good music.
I'm 28. My ideal job is to be a massage therapist (which I am) and an ESL teacher (getting my TESOL certificate this year). Other ideal jobs include spa owner, published author, owner of a burlesque house, psychotherapist and sex therapist.
I'm 20 and I want to be a novelist, working from home, living my dreams. Barring that, I'd like to be an assistant editor at a publishing house, or maybe work with a literary agency.
i have the use of 'some stuff' wherever i go, and if i have to buy some things, i leave them behind when i move on, so don't consider them 'possessions'... i've one pair of plastic sandals, my clothing doesn't amount to the contents of a medium sized suitcase and is almost all 'donies' so i don't count that as 'possessions'... the only 'stuff' i take with me from place to place [where i'm helping with this or that] amounts to 4-5 reference books and a laptop i need for my writing and mentoring work... so i don't have what most of you would consider 'possessions'... yes, of course i had, since i was 57 when i left it all behind, and had loved 'things' of all sorts, especially books, all of my life till then!... in fact, i'd had a personal library of well over 2,000 volumes, not including the many i'd been buying for my 7 children since before they were born... however, once the decision had been made to abandon the material world, it was shockingly easy to give it all away... i expected to feel regret and loss and was surprised to feel only relief and freedom from what i'd come to see as a wrongful way of life... yes... have been since 1995 when i signed away my home and all in it to my youngest daughter... the only slight exception was the nearly 6 years i spent on the tiny island of tinian [till last july], where i started and ran a donation center and free books progam for the needy folks there [90% of the 3,000+/- population]... i still consider that being 'homeless' since i lived in rental spaces donated by the landlord for me to be able to set up and run the donation center... i'm currently living in a donated apartment in bogota, colombia, where i'm helping a young aspiring screenwriter turn 6 pieces of amateur work into actual scripts...
That's... something. Not sure what to say, as I can't fathom what could possibly be wrong with owning things, especially amazing stuff like books. Thanks for the reply.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm a bit confused by all this. I thought the idea of being a free-spirit was to be self-sufficient, living off your own hard work? For example living off your own farm, having your own recycling systems, maybe even living comunally with others. I mean, I imagine most societal drop-outs who are anti-consumerist live in tents , caravans or houses, but keep them running without relying entirely on money. I've watched a lot of documentaries on this stuff, so I've seen a lot of different examples. But what you're describing sounds like you rely on the generosity of other people to keep you going...? I mean you used the word "donation" a lot, and whilst you do your own charity work, I'm really confused about how requiring donations yourself makes you "free"? And how does living in an apartment, donated or not, make you homeless? Forgive me if I'm missing something...
Maia, you seem like an amazing woman. Helping people for free and choosing not to live a material way of life. It takes a lot of courage to leave everything behind.
18 years old. Being a novelist would be ideal for me. Work at my own pace and all that jazz. But in the latter, I wouldn't mind being an English teacher for older students.
I'm 21, and I'm about to graduate from college in May with my Bachelor's Degree in marketing and a minor in communication. Hopefully, I'll eventually get to work in creative advertising, possibly for a large, national company. Ideally, though, I'd love to win/inherit/find/steal a massive sum of money that would allow me to forever read, write, play video games, and pursue my interests in astrology and cartography.
22 this month and I am trying to get into Journalism, albeit a dark time for the profession. Got a degree in History as well
i never said there was anything wrong with anyone else owning things... and as a lifelong book-lover i certainly enjoyed owning them in my old life... however, i came to feel i didn't need to 'own' things and when i divested myself of 'self' and decided to spend the rest of my life being useful to others, no longer needed to own anything [other than my computer, that allows me to do so]... it well may be for some... but i never claimed to be a 'free spirit'... and i'm also not a 'societal drop-out/anti-consumerist'... no, i don't 'rely on' that at all... it may sound crazy to you, but in all the years since i gave away all i owned, everything i've needed in order to live and be helpful/useful to others has simply 'dropped in my lap' in various and sundry ways... such as being asked to house-sit just when i'd far exceeded the time limits for working in a homeless shelter [it's hard living with and trying to help such in-need souls, so workers are limited to 6 months and i'd been helping there for twice that long]... and house/pet-sitting 'jobs' [i did it for free] all over the world continuing to come my way, so that for the next 6 years i was never without a roof over my head [but still 'homeless' as they were others' homes and temporary], so i had a place from which i could continue to help writers by email [also for free and at first, on a laptop given to me by an anti-nuke group i'd been helping, since then, on upgraded ones i bought myself with the ss income i eventually decided to apply for, so i could go to those who needed a house-sitter but couldn't afford the travel costs to 'import' me]... i don't 'require' donations... but when they're offered, and are such that they allow me to continue being useful, i accept them gratefully... anything offered to me that i don't need to do that, i give to those it will help... i started and ran a donation center for the needy... the donations i accepted were for them, not for myself... and the 'donated' building was what allowed me to be able to provide the needy islanders with necessities they couldn't afford to buy... so i don't know why you're looking at the word 'donation' as something negative in re what i do... staying temporarily in someone else's home is not having a home of my own, thus i am still 'homeless'... being homeless does not only mean one lives on the streets or elsewhere out in the open... it means what the word says: home-less... that is, lacking a home of one's own... thanks for the kind words, yvaine!... i'm glad you don't see anything negative or contradictory in how i live... love and hugs, maia
Maia, just interested, what made you feel that giving up all your possessions was the path to helping others (if you did), surely you are better able to help others if you have lots of possessions, then you have the resources that you can offer others. I'm not insulting what you did and do, I'm quite impressed you managed a feat I couldn't even if i wanted to. Perhaps the reason I just can't get to grips with this whole concept is that I'm a sixteen year-old who cannot imagine a non-material way of life!
It sounds like a kind of Christian way of life Maia has decided to live i.e. give up all your possessions and devote your life to helping others. It sounds exactly the same only Jesus isn't mentioned. Either way, I completely admire it. Takes courage, shit loads of it
Sorry, even after all your explanation (thank you for that) I still don't see how you aren't relying on other people. What use would you be in helping others if someone didn't provide a home for you, or if you weren't able to claim SS money? I mean I assume that when you're house-sitting you're still using their gas/electricity, food, water and internet for your laptop? I don't see how you can prove you don't need posessions when it's clear that you do in fact need some way of providing for yourself, which just so happens to come from donations from other people. I'm not saying you aren't doing good things by doing charity, but you're still dependent on other peoples' generosity. The fact you take up the donations is surely contradictory to your original point? Isn't this just relying on other people to have posessions so that you don't have to? You don't have to explain yourself any more if you don't want to though, so thanks for answering my questions. Can't help being curious.
She is using the house as her "pay," and means of living; instead of taking a salary on top of that as someone normally would. Nobody house/pet sits for free. Unless their close family or friends. Likewise nobody helps an aspiring screen writer for free. So she trades her mentoring for a roof. The donations are for the people she helps; she just collects them and provides an easy way for people to send them. Social Security is not charity--it is earned over a lifetime and rightfully hers. And what she was trying to say was, that she herself does not need all these possessions. And how she has been living all these years proves that she, herself, does not need to own them. With the exception of her laptop. At least, this is what I have gathered from her posts and website. I could be totally wrong though, haha. There are plenty of humanitarians in the world that rely on other peoples generosity so that they may in turn help many more people.
you've pretty well nailed it, jh! except for this: that's exactly what i did for all those years... many housesitters charge a fee... i never charged any fee, thus, i 'did it for free'... after i started taking ss i was able to provide for all my own needs, including travel to their homes, so the homeowners did not have to provide a single cent for me to get there or to stay there... how much more 'free' could that possibly be? same goes for all the years of mentoring and helping writers, all of which i did totally without charge, or any expectation of anything in return... doing the same kinds of work for many of them that in my old life, clients paid up to $150/hour for... and back in the 80s/90s, that was a heck of a lot of money... no, i never said that's what i felt/did... not necessarily... how can having lots of possessions make anyone 'better able to help others'?... help doesn't always require money, y'know... when i lived with those were not homeless 'by choice' as i was, none of the help i was able to give them depended on my having possessions... i traveled from one state's shelter to the next with only the few bits of clothing i could carry in a bundle... when a computer was needed for me to be able to help the shelter and give lessons to some of the residents, lo and behold, a couple were donated just then... as everything i've needed in these 'maia' years has simply and almost 'magically' appeared just at the moment when it was needed... nor could i have at your age!... nor would i have at any age up to when it suddenly came to me that i was 'meant' to, at 57... actually, lags, i don't believe in any god/s or religion!... just in good and ungood... i'm not 'relying on' other people because i don't look for anyone to do anything for me... they come to me and offer whatever it is, i don't go around trying to find or asking for anything i need... for instance, this young man whose scripts i'm rewriting [who i'd been mentoring for 9 years] suddenly asked me if i could do the rewrites for him, and since he couldn't afford to pay what working-for-pay screenwriters would charge, asked if i would please come and live for free in his family's condo in bogota for a year, so i could do the work, while i saved up what rent and utilities would cost me elsewhere, to allow me to go back to live with the hopi and set up a donation center and free books program there, when i'm done with the scripts... so, it's like some kind of cosmic barter system that seems to operate 'automatically' and all i have to do is go wherever i seem to be 'sent' and do whatever drops in my lap... that is not the same as: because i can live on my own just as easily... what are you trying to prove with the question?... if i wasn't alive i couldn't help anyone, either... the point is, one way or another, places to stay [not at all the same as 'providing a home'!] have for the past 16 years just seemed to 'appear' or be offered out of the blue, which has allowed me to be useful/helpful to countless people in need all over the world... why do you feel the need to question the 'rightness' or whatever of it? actually, for 5 years i had no income whatsoever, but was still by one weird way or another, able to help homeless men, women and children, along with those who ran the shelters, provide free writing services to the hopi tribe, help youngsters in the bronx ghetto with their 'save the world' projects, and others, all the while being able to do my own philosophical writings on the human race that i can now give away in book form... so?... it's never even close to as much usage as when they're home, so costs them less than if they weren't away... how is that not house/pet-sitting for free?... where did i say i wanted to?... i'm not out to prove anything... you seem to be trying to disprove things i'm not even saying or doing... i can't figure out why... sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't... what do you think is wrong with that? ...no, i am not 'dependent on other people's generosity' at all... you don't seem to be reading what i'm writing... how is accepting donations i don't ask for 'contradictory'?... and to what 'original point'?... as for other people having possessions that i may make use of, it's not 'so i don't have to' own things... in fact, if the places i'm staying in don't have things i need, i'll either do without them or buy them... i can't even count all the toasters and other assorted items i've 'gifted' my hosts around the world with, when i left... so just about all of the places i've stayed and the people i have lived among end up with more than they had before i arrived... now that i think about it, i can't recall a single one where i haven't left useful things behind...
cacian... i hope you can forgive me for my original post in this thread having sort of hijacked it... didn't mean to, honest! :redface:
Sorry mamma; all I meant was that you trade a roof for your services. I know it is still technically free.
I'm kind of like you, mammamaia, and I can see myself doing the sorts of things you're doing (I hope to, even) in the future. My situation: used to rent a house in Boston. The furnace caught fire one day, and my slum lord decided he couldn't replace it and since I was on a month to month lease, it made sense for me to just leave. I didn't have much savings or anywhere to go at the time, so I gave everything to charity except what could fit in my car. I've been a wanderer ever since. I discovered I liked not having a place to tie me down or a house full of stuff I didn't need. I've settled down a couple times over the years here and there, but for the most part I've traveled. I have friends across the country who love having me around. And I love the barter system. I can offer people English tutoring, massages, and some money I make giving massages at spas, and people can offer me a place to sleep or some food. You could call it bumming around. I do. I've been without a home on and off for years now. I like it. And yeah, I do feel free.
Mammamaia, you live a fascinating life. Have you ever read Amulet by Roberto Bolaño? You remind me of the main character of that a lot.
18, and I see myself being either a Social Psychology professor/high school teacher or just a general artist. Maybe I could even be the teacher and just draw shit on the side. Yeah. *muses* Yeah, I'd like that.
this is the first i've heard of that book, lightman... guess i'll have to look it up... amazon is so handy! well, i'm not 'tall and blonde' , being only 5'4" and olive-skinned/black-haired [thanks to a sicilian/italian mom], though i was thin, till i hit my 60s ... however, i am a full time poet and certainly have lived 'without fixed address or employment' for the past 16 years! thanks for the compliment... auxilio is definitely a character after my own heart... abrazos y besos, m
