I grew up 30 miles northwest of Detroit, in a subdivision
surrounded by forests, meadows, lakes, and farms. We kids spent a lot of time outdoors, and
felt at home in nature. There was far
more fun to be found in the woods than in sitting indoors with the latest gizmo,
television.
In 1974, I earned a degree in history from Western Michigan
University. My vision was to acquire
land, live simply, and follow the winds of creativity. So, I worked and saved.
In 1992, I bought an old farmhouse near Lake Superior, in
northern Michigan. For nine years, I
spent far more time with wild animals than with humans. I lived without a refrigerator, water heater,
television, or flush toilet. I heated
with wood, bathed in a sauna, composted my waste, and melted snow every winter,
when my pump froze for months.
I feasted on the beauty of the northern lights, intense
whiteout blizzards, deer, bears, coyotes, eagles, foxes, and beavers. I enjoyed an intimate experience with the
living world that most mainstream people will never know.
I spent some time with native people. For them, the land, the life, the spirits, and
everything else were sacred. This felt
so much more coherent than the human-centered religious beliefs of the dominant
culture. My years in the forest were a time
of intense learning and healing, a great gift.
Today, in consumer society, I feel like an outsider visiting a strange
realm.
For more than 20 years, I have devoted much effort to understanding
the turbulent saga of humankind. I’ve
read mountains of books. We’ve created a
way of life that is spectacularly unsustainable. It has no long-term future.
For the last six years, I’ve been studying and writing full
time, seven days a week. Intensive
learning invigorates critical thinking, and illuminates dodgy beliefs and myths. This leads to a state of mind that is
strikingly different from the mainstream thinking that is closing the curtains
on the future.
My goal is to help those who seek to learn, to help them ask
deeper questions, to encourage them to think outside the box. Once the coming storms have passed, many huge
obstacles to sustainable living will be gone.
The path home will be long and challenging. It’s time to share what I’ve learned. I hope that some of it may be useful. Welcome!
