life – Page 3 – Citizen Reporter

The Coincidences and the Big Picture

I’m probably a very annoying person to deal with on a daily basis, especially when I’m doing my typical “big picture” speeches and appreciating the life I’ve carved out for myself knowing full well how many do not get to enjoy, travel, try… as I have. I’m not sure what turn of events, what influential person or piece of media that I ever heard/read/watched, that made me someone that continuously comes back to one conclusion: despite some slim odds and all the factors that could have played out differently, I have arrived (as have so many of us) at this point in my life doing things I love to do, having people in my life (near and far) that I’m honored to know, and in reasonably good shape as far as the essentials of life go. Although much of the world seems so busy and eager to move past these types of observations, just as quickly as someone might be about to click away from this text, I think the ability to see it – especially at difficult moments- is something that needs nurturing.

Can everything change suddenly? – Of course. Are there worries? -I’m a citizen journalist in the year 2012; there are worries. Have there been set backs and tragedies? I think we’ve all had them, though again I feel fortunate having learned about and seen how bad things can be and are for so many in this world. Beyond all that – is it enough to just dwell on the big picture of fantastic coincidences that have led to a certain degree of satisfaction on a personal and work level? Probably not.

But still, as so many astute observers have stated, there is much beauty to be seen and experienced in this world. Sometimes it is right there in front of us, and we choose not to look or we lack the ability to see it, especially during moments of weakness. Think about the series of events that took place before you read this text today, and all the other factors that could have stopped you from reading it, but somehow didn’t come in to play this time. I believe there is something to be said for the good chain reactions of life. Maybe it is the power to recognize them and enjoy them, that helps us individually and collectively, find responses to the many challenges and problems of our world.

91 Excellent Years, And Counting

I can remember at the end of every summer when I was kid, having to wake up before the sun came up, to get a ride from the town’s lone taxi driver, who would take us on the long journey via the treacherous and twisty national roads of Portugal before the dawn of highways, to catch the plane back to New Jersey. Right before my brother and I would get in the car, my grandparents would do the routine: wish us a good trip and ask us if we forgot anything. Then my grandmother, who even back then never had trouble speaking her mind, would speak a dramatic line like she was rehearsing for a very poor rendition of McBeth, “I probably won’t see you next year, as I’m old and I probably won’t survive til next summer.” This would be followed by us half-laughing at her over-dramatic delivery as we’re trying to focus on the journey ahead, and the traditional, “oh be quiet with that stuff” from my grandfather. More than 20 years later, I’ve noticed my grandmother no longer says it, as I guess around the age of 90 it is simply implied.

The beauty of having grandparents around the age of 90, who are still of mostly sound mind, is that you can ask all the questions many people never get to. Instead of learning about your family based on second or third hand stories, you have the very people who lived unbelievable moments and did the kind of hard work that seems impossible for any modern day work-from-anywhere self-employed person. You also get to watch them reflect on a world that they have observed for almost 100 years… even if they were too busy or napping for many of those years. In an era where we stash our elderly out of sight and praise the virtues of being young, I’ve had the good fortune of never losing touch, and always being enlightened/entertained by one set of my grandparents. Even better, throughout my life, I’ve gotten to help my grandfather in his orchards, listen to my grandmother in the kitchen, and laugh at the cold weather while sitting with them around a fireplace.

Not everyone gets to do this. That truth never eludes me. It is a rare treasure that no one is guaranteed and many are denied. I would call that one of the main reasons I would share stories about them, to share the wealth in some tiny and perhaps naive way.

Today my grandfather, José da Fonseca Jr. turned 91 years old. Whatever his age, however different my world might be from his, he is a part of everything I do and the way that I do it. Parabens Avô!

Re-inventing Ourselves and Our Homes

VTHouse — The Vermont Home / photo by Erik

Erik Nelson moved from house to house as an urban dweller, never living in a space that he felt connected to. Until he found forest land that appealed to him and built his own home there. Or as he explains it: “While most people find a job and then live near that job, we picked the place where we really want to live and then made it work with jobs we could get.”

But approach to work isn’t the only thing interesting about how Erik and his family live. In this podcast we talk about the reasons for making your own home on the side of a hill in Vermont, how the experience was building it and how it is now living there. In his experience we find yet another example of those who have left the conventional path and made their own home in a unique place/way.

Recommended: Erik’s Vlog, Wreck & Salvage and the entire collection of house photos on flickr.

Lost Knowledge Needs Finding

Potato — Holy Scrap Springs photo by Mikeysklar

This week Im working on a series of podcasts as well as an article for United Academics Magazine which focuses on people who have created their own home and work spaces. Those who left cities and suburbs, left houses and apartments, left conventional jobs, and moved to a rural or undeveloped place. In their new environments they have built or rebuilt their homes using a mix of traditional, proven techniques and new, innovative features. They do things like grow/raise their own food, collect their own water, generate their own power, and create their own kinds of income-generating work.

This phenomenon, at first glance, is nothing new; people have been leaving cities for the country periodically for decades. (though statistically more people do the opposite) But this generation is the unique above all for the techniques and knowledge it brings to these remote locations. Knowledge that is not only their own, but the never-ending collective knowledge one can consult via the internet. Installing a solar power system? Never built a barn before? Canned your own preserves? Check youtube, the step-by-step instructions are there waiting for you.

Of course the internet is not the only source of knowledge, the offline community that one joins when moving to a rural area also has its own experience and skills which might be called upon. Between the depth of the internet and the generations of experience in your town, whatever it is you don’t yet know how to do on your own, you can learn. And this is exactly what is happening.

Back in the urban-suburban world that so many in the western hemisphere see as the only two choices, such life changes are probably still seen as odd or undesirable. They might lose sleep over barely tenable costs of living and work stress, but they’ve grown up with the idea that this is all normal and simply “life”. Need something for the kids or for the house? Go to Walmart. Need heat? Turn up the thermostat. All needs are met by some external service or source, all of which come at a monetary cost. Again, at some point this may seem like the only way life works. But this group of people has proven otherwise, and their will to take action in this manner has inspired more people to do the same.

In the coming series of podcasts you will hear from this special group of people. They’re explain how they used to live and what led them to make a radical change. They’ll also explain the details about why this way of life not only works better for them, but why they are better prepared for the foreseeable future where the value of money decays further and the ability to grow or make things becomes more rare and necessary.

I’m a Security Risk

Phone The tall blonde blue-suited airport security worker keeps looking down at his screen and up at my face in suspicion, “So you work for who?” I try to explain my different jobs as a citizen journalist, but he only seems to listen to half of what I say. From the very first question he has shot me looks of disapproval, of my job, of my nationalities, of my travel habits… to him there is something wrong with me. He goes on to ask what I find to be excessively personal questions about who my friends are and who I live with, which I politely refuse to answer. He calls over another man who is near the gate, watching all the pre-boarding interviews for passengers on their way to the US. This man, obviously a supervisor, looks at me, looks at his paper, and starts writing me up for a “full” security check. As the two men start to take me away from the gate the supervisor says “Sir, you’ll have to go for further security checks, your life is just too complicated for us.”

His words, and their faces, as a large part of my life lay before them, reminded me of a simple truth: I walk a different path, A very different path. And that path doesn’t fit easily into the boxes on a form, as so much of our lives are supposed to. When you don’t walk the familiar line, give the typical answers, you’re more often condemned then welcomed.

That’s not to say my path is miserable burden. I didn’t mean to lead you in that direction. Indeed I what I do brings me a great deal of joy and wonder, and yes, I would even say more appreciation then rejection.

Still there I am, heading to the basement of Schiphol airport to have every inch of my body and belongings searched. What are these strangers who barely look me in the eye searching for? Any easy way to understand my life perhaps? Something that makes sense to them, perhaps? Whatever it is, I’m not sure they ever find it. Some may get it, some may learn, adapt, and recognize something they never understood before. A different way of doing things that has value, in some form of another. Then again, some people never learn anything. The world goes on repeating some mistakes over and over, and the innocent suffer.

As the great street philosopher and drug dealer Poot once explained, “World going one way, people another yo.”

Two Years Ago This Week

It is the anniversary, though I don’t need an anniversary to remind me of someone who’s energy, wisdom, and spirit, I carry with me everyday. 2 years ago I wrote this text, and I re-post it because it never stops being true:

When I was a child, he would come over to the US and take family vacations with us.
I would listen to his stories of so many adventures he had just returned from.
He spoke so many languages and had this encyclopedic knowledge of the world.
I think even then as a child, I looked at him and listened to him; I wanted to be like him.
As a teenager I would spend parts of my summer with him in Lisbon, thrilled at the chance to go to work with him.
He had this way of plucking books and artifacts off his shelves, to show me some evidence of some historical occurrence. In the middle of a conversation he would start searching some stack of books or in some drawer for something magical that illustrates a point.
As a young adult and a student, I lived in his place in Lisbon. Spending wonderful days and nights, surrounded by his books and his things. Thrilled to be carrying on the tradition, and comparing notes any chance we would get, about what was going on in the city we both loved.
It should come as no surprise that years later I would plant myself in Amsterdam, with him only three hours away in Brussels. Again whenever I felt alone in my adventures, I took solace in the fact that I had him nearby, always ready with advice or a warm home (and a loving family) for me to visit.
He followed my every move on the internet, the audio, the video… it was all filed away in his computer. Knowing this gave me a sign that I was doing something special, that the person whom I’ve look up to all my life, understood and enjoyed my dedication and purpose.
There was never a time that I wasn’t learning from him, about the world around us, about how we got to where we are, and even now… about life.
It is inadequate to write only one post and only these few lines about someone I love so much and will always love. But when it comes to him, someone who has so much to do with who I am and so much of the joy I’ve had in this life, it is impossible not to tell the stories and shout it from the mountaintops- for all the world to hear.
My dearest cousin, you will always be my inspiration and guide as I make my way through this world. But of course, I know you knew that…

Easter 2006