Urban Camping

In a foreign country at the end of my marriage, I traveled nomadically for 11 months staying in 24 places throughout Holland, Portugal, Canada, USA, Brazil and Argentina before buying a home.

It made such an impression on me that I intentionally set out on a second nomadic trip to further explore the concepts of mobility, simplicity, and perspective. While doing my graduate degree, I camped in 30 places in 55 weeks. Now I host urban nomads through the Couchsurfing Project.

24 October 2005

Useful or Beautiful

When I stayed at Colleen's house, I saw the following quote on her bulletin board, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." -- William Morris

It's another approach to non-accumulation.

Other findings that resonate with me in terms of streamlining and traveling light:

John December's Live Simple Site is a modern Walden.

Reading the article about the man who was rescued after four months of survival at sea reminded me that we can live with a lot less than we realize.

The September 2002 Simsara newsletter on Vipassana meditation has a reminder to be careful what you carry.

Sheri Hostetler's poem, "Instructions" asks what are the few things we really need to carry with us.

Andrew Postman's article, 'Good-bye to All That examines why we accumulate.

"Domestic Imperfectionist," Dan Ho, reduced his possessions down to about 55 things because he became disgusted by societal obsessions with unstudied style and trade-up-manship.

Doug Dyment's popular One Bag site used to have an opening page that read: How to Travel Pretty Much Anywhere - for an Indefinite Length of Time - with a Single (Carryon-Sized) Bag.

The backpacking light movement offers a bumpersticker that says, "He who dies with the lightest pack wins."

Material World photography exhibit at O'hare airport in Chicago contrasts the possessions of statistically average families from 30 countries.

Joan Juliet Buck determined in her article, "Stuff Happens," that her connection to the past through loyalty to her possessions meant that she was living a "scrapbook" instead of a life.

Technorati tags: urban camping, one bag,dan ho,domestic imperfectionist,backpacking light,doub dyment,nomad, andrew postman, real simple, travel, art, lifestyle, streamline

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Name: Jennifer Metz

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

Thinking outside the box
by getting out of my box.

I want mobility:
Get-up-and-go in the global village. Navigation to other vantage points. What does the world look like from there? Is there room to move? Or am I tied down to my stuff?

I want simplicity:
Real needs and wants are fewer than they sometimes seem. 'Accumulation' is as inevitable as death and taxes. Can I prune back the attention-stealing stuff to give space to the useful and meaningful things?

I want perspective:
Understanding of how multi-faceted life is. Consideration of options. Is the world getting smaller? Or is MY WORLD getting smaller? How many viewpoints have I seen so far? Is there a 'road less traveled' or a million billion different roads? Can I 'get out of the woods' and look for multiple angles?

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