For some reason, You Tube isn't working on my PC today, so you can please check this title on You Tube
( Hygienic Raw Living ).
And you can follow the other related video clips like ( Amy's visit part # ) ...etc.

Amy lives in Costa Rica a very simple life. Not only she walks barefoot ( here that Cody's ?? ) but she lives in a home that has no walls !!! Only floor and a roof . She also has minimal belongings.

I was going to call this thread ( We've found you a wife, Cody !!) ... But joking aside, Let's get philosophical here and explore the area between being prepared, and living a simpler life.

The reason, as I see it, is that sometimes being prepared is seen as (stockpiling lots of stuff) whether it is food, knives, or any gear that we define as "must have". However, we have seen in our lives many people who live with very little and seem to get by and survive.

It is very interesting that the homeless ( who live on very little ) are seen as a source of inspiration in some writings and some U-tube clips to learn about being prepared and learn to survive on very little. So how can we combine the philospohy of stockpiling stuff on one hand, and learning to live by very little on the other hand ?

I suppose all of fall in somewhere on a continuum between unlimited accumulation of stuff and bare bones existence. Perhaps it is as simple as realizing that "stuff" isn't the be all and end all of life.

I think one of the reasons backpacking and mountaineering appeal to me is that it demonstrates how basic life can be. Of course, when the trip is over, it is nice to indulge for a bit....

Hard to imagine living in Costa Rica without walls, they have many creepy-crawlies, big and small.

Camping has long been my periodic lesson in living simply, for up to a week at a time. It is an instructive way to vacation.

I don't know many people who later in their life wish they had more stuff. If I had life to do over, I'd have less stuff.

Except knives, firesteels and campstoves. Can't have enough of those....


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Preach it!

While someone who lives a simple, spartan lifestyle probably means that their needs are fairly simple, it does not necessarily mean that they are superior in foraging or can necessarily survive any better in unusual circumstances. The spartan lifestyle may reflect living in an environment of abundance, in a temperate climate.

Mike Adams of NaturalNews once thought that living as an expat, including on an idyllic farm in Costa Rica, was the best way to escape and prepare for coming bad times. He eventually decided to return to the US, but he once wrote an article about his experience abroad and he mentioned the very now-centered mindset of the Costa Ricans.

He mentioned that they would only buy enough for today or now, whether talking about food or only buying a small handful of nails at a time for some project even though they *know* that they need many hundreds of nails. Adams mentioned that he did not consider the Costa Ricans to be preparedness-minded.

I've seen something similar living in a low income neighborhood. I'm hestitant to say that lack of money is the sole reason, but many folks also have a now-centered mindset there. In the few stores there, things are packaged in small amounts. You can even buy cigarettes one at a time. Some of these folks are very resourceful and would probably excel in some crisis, but most would be helpless and lacking in any reserves to fall back on.

The dream of simplicity, or simple living, touches many of us in the first world. The 'lay on a beach as the ideal vacation' selling fantasy is one variant. Backpacking, as an fine example of the simple life, is (as Colin Fletcher noted) a corrective, not a substitute.

Living the simple lifestyle is another matter. It seems to me that people with seemingly simple lifestyles in fact have remarkably complex strategies for meeting the necessities of life.

I note that many people in the third world are desperate to escape into our world of complexity. Perhaps they see things we don't.

If we could learn to be more disciplined, more mentally focused, we could shoo away many of the nattering details that bog us down, overwhelm us. Without giving up the important advantages that our complex systems bring. Many of these complexities we voluntarily take upon ourselves, even though we don't need them.

BTW, going barefoot in Costa Rica is a really bad idea. Hookworm.

If it wasn't for wanting to attract a mate, I'd be living a lot simpler than I do right now. Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of stuff just to make my feathers appear colorful and plentiful. I've done this both consciously and subconsciously. I don't really think about it unless it's brought up for discussion.

Some may suggest finding a simple girl. Well, simple girls have their own way of making things complicated. Consider, for example, the girl in the original post. At some point, she's going to need some serious medical attention for something. She'll have to go to a hospital with (God forbid) walls, clean linen, X-ray machines, CAT scan machines, etc. If she doesn't have medical insurance, then she will have to come out of pocket. She will have to go back to commuting to a corporation from the suburbs, or doing something similar. Or she'll have to find a sugar daddy if you don't already serve that role for her. At that point, it would be hypocritical for her to go back to a lifestyle of no walls and no electricity, or at least it would be hypocritical to look down at people who prefer these "luxuries".

Wow, I went off on a tagent, but that is how I see things here.

In most of the cases these people are "parasites". They can survive because other, less "simple" people are around. That's the only way to survive on bare bones for a lifetime, unless you are on an uninhabited tropical island large enough for a closed ecosystem existence. A lot of such stories are started surfacing during the economic crisis. Propaganda, IMO.

Simple lifestyle is appealing, but it does, as other state, rely on some resources being available - I can 'survive' in the city daily with a credit card and little else. Until the power goes,or if I get in a crisis where I need things literallyh in a matter of seconds - and often these are the crises' we worry about....