surfer
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Off Grid 24/7's post on the Judgements thread (as follows)...
" I think the blade cuts 2 ways here. If your choice is being homeless or living in a vehicle, then of course I would choose living in a vehicle.
HOWEVER, if you are choosing this as an alternative lifestyle, it only makes good sense to get your ducks in a row before jumping in with both feet. Too many people glamorize this lifestyle and advise others to just do it and sort everything out later, and they'll be glad they did. At the very least, someone should have their income figured out, and how they're going to deal with emergencies, breakdowns, the weather, meals, and bathroom issues.
This lifestyle can be gotten into cheaper than just the move in costs of a cheap apartment in many areas. BUT, this lifestyle is NOT appropriate or desirable for the vast majority of people. I see way too much encouragement to JUST DO IT, and not enough LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP mentality online.
Over the last year and a half, I have been working with a lot of homeless people. A large portion of them started out living in vehicles before they lost them. The simple truth is that it costs money to live in a vehicle, without some means of financial support, you are doomed to failure, whether you're living in a vehicle, or living on the streets.
People need to be taught how to either get jobs, or make money for themselves, if they don't have some means of support. Life isn't free, even if you're boondocking.
This isn't intended to be any form of judgement, just common sense, which seems to be less and less common as time goes on..." Any time you feel the need to say "this isn't a judgement" you can be 100% sure it is a judgement. I went through and deleted the most obnoxious forms of judgement from this quote from Off-grid.
...reminded me of Bob advising how to deal with fear. In Bob's case he was addressing paralyzing fear & Off Grid 24/7 was addressing the opposite. I'm thinking it's two sides of the same coin. Bob recommended acknowledging and "literally thank it for its good service, tell it you’re glad it’s helping you stay safe. Then just keep reminding it over-and-over again that you have done everything you can to eliminate the risks". Off Grid 24/7 recommended acknowledging that there are risks, dangers & hurdles that one should take responsibility for. On one side you've got the failure to plan and on the other you have the failure to launch; kind of like the fine line between genius and crazy? I think both advises are sound to the right audience. To that audience it helps to create balance.
I think this site helps the 2 types of people that choose this lifestyle: the failure to launch/cowardly types by providing answers to ease their concerns as well as the failure to plan/foolhardy types to kick in their independent self preservation.
On the surface Off Grid 24/7's post sounds like he's talking to the foolhardy but I think I glimpse another level of info. Things like "lifestyle is NOT appropriate or desirable for the vast majority of people" could mean what besides lacking the nomad gene? Are there subgroups within the cowardly group that have the nomadic gene but yet it is not appropriate or desirable for them to live nomadicly? Does the 'throw caution to the wind & just do it' have a kind of desensitization effect to a subgroup of the foolhardy where they become bums? And I define bums as from http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/11/26/the-difference-between-hobos-tramps-and-bums/ "... a hobo is someone who travels from place to place looking for work, a tramp is someone who travels but avoids work whenever possible, and a bum doesn't care to work or travel."
Other thoughts?
" I think the blade cuts 2 ways here. If your choice is being homeless or living in a vehicle, then of course I would choose living in a vehicle.
HOWEVER, if you are choosing this as an alternative lifestyle, it only makes good sense to get your ducks in a row before jumping in with both feet. Too many people glamorize this lifestyle and advise others to just do it and sort everything out later, and they'll be glad they did. At the very least, someone should have their income figured out, and how they're going to deal with emergencies, breakdowns, the weather, meals, and bathroom issues.
This lifestyle can be gotten into cheaper than just the move in costs of a cheap apartment in many areas. BUT, this lifestyle is NOT appropriate or desirable for the vast majority of people. I see way too much encouragement to JUST DO IT, and not enough LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP mentality online.
Over the last year and a half, I have been working with a lot of homeless people. A large portion of them started out living in vehicles before they lost them. The simple truth is that it costs money to live in a vehicle, without some means of financial support, you are doomed to failure, whether you're living in a vehicle, or living on the streets.
People need to be taught how to either get jobs, or make money for themselves, if they don't have some means of support. Life isn't free, even if you're boondocking.
This isn't intended to be any form of judgement, just common sense, which seems to be less and less common as time goes on..." Any time you feel the need to say "this isn't a judgement" you can be 100% sure it is a judgement. I went through and deleted the most obnoxious forms of judgement from this quote from Off-grid.
...reminded me of Bob advising how to deal with fear. In Bob's case he was addressing paralyzing fear & Off Grid 24/7 was addressing the opposite. I'm thinking it's two sides of the same coin. Bob recommended acknowledging and "literally thank it for its good service, tell it you’re glad it’s helping you stay safe. Then just keep reminding it over-and-over again that you have done everything you can to eliminate the risks". Off Grid 24/7 recommended acknowledging that there are risks, dangers & hurdles that one should take responsibility for. On one side you've got the failure to plan and on the other you have the failure to launch; kind of like the fine line between genius and crazy? I think both advises are sound to the right audience. To that audience it helps to create balance.
I think this site helps the 2 types of people that choose this lifestyle: the failure to launch/cowardly types by providing answers to ease their concerns as well as the failure to plan/foolhardy types to kick in their independent self preservation.
On the surface Off Grid 24/7's post sounds like he's talking to the foolhardy but I think I glimpse another level of info. Things like "lifestyle is NOT appropriate or desirable for the vast majority of people" could mean what besides lacking the nomad gene? Are there subgroups within the cowardly group that have the nomadic gene but yet it is not appropriate or desirable for them to live nomadicly? Does the 'throw caution to the wind & just do it' have a kind of desensitization effect to a subgroup of the foolhardy where they become bums? And I define bums as from http://knowledgenuts.com/2014/11/26/the-difference-between-hobos-tramps-and-bums/ "... a hobo is someone who travels from place to place looking for work, a tramp is someone who travels but avoids work whenever possible, and a bum doesn't care to work or travel."
Other thoughts?
