How Did We Get Here?

Actually, what I should be asking is "How did I get here?" which I've done plenty of times, but I honestly believe that there is a "We." If I didn't believe this, I'd have an office job, a fat bank account, picket fence, etc. which I do not have so I'd love to learn how other people arrived at a similar decision which most likely required sacrifices, reassessing goals and expectations and working harder than an easier path would have required. I'm especially interested in those who weren't exposed to alternative living, permaculture, off the grid life, etc. growing up. I certainly wasn't. I was supposed to be a yuppie, but nevertheless that programming did not stick and as soon as I got out of school I took off like a bat out of heck. I didn't even go to the ceremony to get my diploma. All I knew was there were a lot of things wrong with how I was expected to live and I couldn't pretend not to see them.

I don't think I ever articulated it until right now, but without actually verbalizing it, I just had a feeling that I couldn't be the only one. (of course, you weren't genius! you're not that original:) You might call it faith, faith in an unknown "we". Here I am, now, posting on a very vast and established website created, maintained and used by the types of people who I didn't know existed, but had a feeling that they did. I apologize if this is a redundant question or coming out awkward. I'm not new to the lifestyle or permies (have been a big fan for many years), but never been one for joining or posting in forums. Maybe because even though I suspected that there were others, I didn't know anyone personally so when I made the decision to not take the road most-travelled or drink the cool-aid or swallow the blue pill, it was a personal, almost secret, decision. I didn't tell anyone or make any major announcements, I just took off and started learning what the life I had led up until then hadn't taught me which was a lot. That was 25 years ago.

So yes, I'd love to hear how others heard or responded to a similar inner voice or compass. I've run the gamut of morals, idealism, beliefs, convictions, stubbornness, etc. and I'd be foolish to claim that they didn't play a role in some ways, but when it's all said and done, the decision was, and still is -because we all continually make it everyday and could bail and join the mainstream whenever we want or could we? Maybe some of us don't have a choice. It's very hard to unrealize something(s). Mother Nature is so important to me that the decision was a form of loyalty to her and everything she's done and does for me, if that makes any sense than it was about virtue signaling or judging how others were living. It's more personal. I couldn't/can't risk damaging that relationship.

Alright, I rambled on enough. "Leaves are falling all around. It's time I was on my way. Thanks to you I'm much obliged..." Not to sound dramatic, but I guess this was my way of finally introducing myself to the unknown We. Nice to meet you, haha. Thanks for being you.

I guess I got to where I was (being a Gert) way back in high school. I calculated as a Freshman all the classes I needed to graduate, and then realized by eliminating study halls and taking the required courses instead my Senior year would consist of going to vocational school. It turns out that the extra course I took ended up being my career (welding). But at that time kids saw my schedule and said, "that is not fair because I would have liked to have done that". But it was fair... every kid in school could have done just what I did had they planned ahead. Instead they did what everyone else was doing. What I had accidentally discovered from that was a life long lesson:

1. No one tells you how to get ahead in life; you got to figure it out for yourself
2. You got to do the work up front then get the rewards afterwards (no instant gratification)
3. If you do what everyone else does, you get what everyone else does

I have felt guilty these last few years because life has been pretty easy. A Permie style of life has served me well and now having retired from it, its paying dividends. But in that, I have always waited for the ball to drop, my life to descend back into chaos, and yet I was reading a true story of a man who had a life much like mine, very difficult situations, but then... towards the latter parts of his life... it just became easy and comfortable. He had done the work up front, and reaped the rewards of that on the backend. From that I learned, I need not fear that chaos will soon ensue. It might not. I lived life at 200 miles an hour and now life can be easy and comfortable.

The story of that man's life was an epiphone for me: I no longer live in fear my life will tumble back into chaos.

I just take life a day at a time.  BTW, welcome to permies.

Everyday is a new day.  Forget about the past as that is ancient history.

Today is a present.

How did we get here?  Where is here?  Here on the forum or here at this point in our lives?

Silas Marner wrote:All I knew was there were a lot of things wrong with how I was expected to live and I couldn't pretend not to see them.

This resonated with how I have felt about the world since I was a child. Thank you for boiling it down into a clear and concise sentence. Hit me right in the face. I waffle between wondering whether everyone pretends not to see the problems or they just don't see them - whether it's a choice or just plain ignorance - and I don't think I'll ever truly come to a conclusion on that one. The answer doesn't really matter though because eventually everyone has to deal with the consequences of meandering away from the cycles of nature, I'd rather just stay on the mean rather than deal with the rubber-band shock when we are forced to revert to it.

That's great. And, thank you for the welcome, Anne.

I'm realizing that for some it may not have been such a monumental decision between going it alone or staying within the fold. I shouldn't assume that others had to abandon one world in the hopes of creating a completely different one on their own. Nevertheless, I still see people living a permaculture lifestyle (even before the word was coined) as pioneers and pathfinders because most people at least in the U.S. don't live like this. Like Ezra said "wondering whether people pretend not to see them or actually don't see them".

Most of my friends and family, ok, all of them, live a typical American lifestyle and as a result maybe they've been more insulated from even considering that any of society's or the environment's problems are their problems. If how they're living works for them, why fix anything? This forced me to find a way to keep loving those I care about even though we live completely different and have a different value system. If you're not insulated, the issues all around us are right in your face. No one's going to tell you "Oh, don't worry about it." I used to think it was because I was too aware of everything, but not being insulated may have been what allowed my awareness to spill further than it does for others. I donno. Didn't mean to get all philosophical about it. I just like hearing about others' journeys that have resulted in more similar beliefs than those of people I was supposed to be like. Thanks for your great responses!

there's many people who seek alternative because of many disbalnces that run in the rapid developments that happened in last decades? centuries?, anyway you may wanna look at https://permies.com/t/270170/Envisioning-Permaculture-Palace which exploring other outlook at the world of possibilities