Is planning and wanting to live in a van normal thought?

[oceanside7]

This same comment I wrote as a reply to: Do small spaces comfort you. But now I put it as a thread in hopes of a response to how my life has turned out the way it did. There are many people doing vandwelling but is it normal to want it? To even plan it? Even so many years back in life without realizing it as a metaphor. Could TV shows like Lost In Space brainwash or change a person.

When I was little I would play Lost In Space in my dad's work van. I would lookup at the moon and that I was escaping there to be free in my own little private escape pod. The spaceship would comfort me and take care of all my needs. I have always hated the modern world, trying to change me into something I'm not. I would always rebel against society. Many times I feel like I've been programed to think like this because I don't feel like it's normal to be living in a van. Most of all what really freaks me out is that I've had been planning an escape pod since I was little and not even knowing it. Totally ignoring the idea of a normal life. I was even married to a nice looking lady yet still gave it all up.

At that same time when I was little only once in my whole entire life I actually fell asleep sitting at the edge of my bed with my eyes open staring at the floor. Only to awake the next morning with my eyes open and wondering what the hell just happened. Could this have anything to do with the way I turned out? Was I programed or hypnotized? Am I just being silly to think this. Maybe it was just something I ate. Sorry I'm telling all this to people I don't know, I just wonder why I picked such a strange lifestyle or was it me, am I normal for wanting this. What do you all think?

 

[akrvbob]

Obviously I think it's normal since I've been living in a van or other small vehicle for 13 years. But beyond my own experience humans were designed to be nomadic and that meant living in small mobile spaces. For millions of years humans and pre-humans were nomads and as such they either lived under the stars or in caves and other tiny places they could throw together.

Vandwellers are the normal ones, anyone who want's to live in a giant home that can't move is the abnormal one.
Bob

 

[Reducto]

No, it's not normal. Almost nobody I talk to about it seems to understand the idea and although I do spot other vandwellers they are few and far between.

If being normal is important to you, get an office job, a spouse, 2-3 kids, a mortgage, and a boat you only use once a year at best. I'd rather be true to myself and good to others, personally.

 

[Hereandthere]

In my family as I grew up, the word normal was usually said with a slight turn of the lip, as in, "Yeah, he's a nice guy but he's so normal."

Guess I still tend to favor the edges!

 

[rvwandering]

It's not considered normal by a lot of people. In fact even though we've been living in a RV for many years most of our friends and relatives still think it's kind of strange. They really don't understand why we like it and why we don't want to live a "normal" life.

So don't worry about being normal. Worry about being happy because that's what it's all about. You've only been given so many days. You might as well live them the best way that you can.

 

[Seraphim]

Define normal. Then decide if that definition describes a desirable state. Or a state in which you wish to exist. 'Normal' does not necessarily equate to 'good' or 'desirable.' Chose what you wish to be, or to do, and work towards that goal. Forget about what other think of as normal. Establish normalcy for yourself.

 

[oceanside7]

Obviously I think it's normal since I've been living in a van or other small vehicle for 13 years. But beyond my own experience humans were designed to be nomadic and that meant living in small mobile spaces. For millions of years humans and pre-humans were nomads and as such they either lived under the stars or in caves and other tiny places they could throw together.

Vandwellers are the normal ones, anyone who want's to live in a giant home that can't move is the abnormal one.
Bob

Thanks, that history then must confirm my behavior and way of thinking, but never the less I try to keep my lifestyle a secret cause some people when told thought I was crazy to actually want it. I always thought of careers to be crazy. Never found any interest in a university education that is really needed due to the high cost of living the conventional lifestyle. I feel it overwhelms me and creates what I read as the poverty of time. I think life is just too short to be chasing after soo much money. Besides somebody at the end will just get it anyways after you die.

---

 

[oceanside7]

No, it's not normal. Almost nobody I talk to about it seems to understand the idea and although I do spot other vandwellers they are few and far between.

If being normal is important to you, get an office job, a spouse, 2-3 kids, a mortgage, and a boat you only use once a year at best. I'd rather be true to myself and good to others, personally.

Reducto, remember that in life no one really wants to be alone in life no matter what they say. It's just not true. The human race is a social species. Not everybody has the huge amounts of money needed to buy the badges of membership- Quote taken from Freedom Road book. Then there is the problem of trust and divorce. Having faith can be very costly if your the main bread winner. Prenuptial Agreements is not true love, it's just distrust. Again it's just too all complicated for me and find it way to difficult being molded for the hope of someone's acceptance. Yet I wish I could have all the above that you mentioned but without all the sacrifices and risks.

---

Define normal. Then decide if that definition describes a desirable state. Or a state in which you wish to exist. 'Normal' does not necessarily equate to 'good' or 'desirable.' Chose what you wish to be, or to do, and work towards that goal. Forget about what other think of as normal. Establish normalcy for yourself.

Seraphim, my problem is that I want the best of both worlds. To be free and not have to work for it. But since I'm lazy and wasn't born with the golden spoon in my mouth it's not reality. So I'm screwed and have to work for a wage that's not acceptable to society for it's costly badges. So that alienates me, makes me an outcast, alone is not normal.

 

[akrvbob]

It is no measure of health
to be well adjusted
to a profoundly sick society.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

[akrvbob]

There is an alternative. You can work the sugar beet harvest in the fall, work for Amazon at the Holidays and then take the other 8 months of the year off. And those aren't your only chocies, there are lots of ways to make big money in ashort period of time. The key thing is to not need much money!

Boondocking in a van is so cheap you can live well on very little.

But there is a price to pay for that freedom. You aren't doing anything to prepare for your old age.

So the question is, do you want 30 years of freedom and LIFE, and then possibly 10 years of hardship in your old age.

Or...

30 years of slavery and monotony and then MAYBE 10-20 years of possible freedom as your health and vitality decline? If you don't die younger from a life of drudgery.

Of course it doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can work out something in-between the extremes. But what's important is to consider it and decide what YOU want from YOUR life. Don't just blindly obey the ABNORMAL HERD.
Bob

 

[oceanside7]

Thanks Bob, I forgot all about that post. It's really is all soo true. I have a telemarketing desk job. I'm 51 so the job is easy on my body, plus I can always take time-off. Just trying to build a little nest-egg by being my own landlord inside my van and rebelling against the matrix.

 

[Chancebond]

First, let me ask you something. What is normal?! Normal is boring, that's what normal is!

 

[ganchan]

I know a psychologist whose favorite saying is,"'Normal' is just a setting on your washing machine."