Trading

I grew a lot of sorghum this year, but it was the broomcorn kind that's too difficult to hull for human consumption. It was fun to grow (the tallest got to 11'8"), but likely not something I'll plant often. What to do with it all? I traded 5 litres of it to my new friend Erin for her chickens to eat, in exchange for fresh farm eggs.

I'm reading Jerome M. Segal's book Graceful Simplicity right now, and he talks a bit so far about trading -- time for money, money for stuff. He points out that in our inefficient society, "our very real and legitimate economic needs can be met only with high levels of income." He points out that simple living (a key interest of mine right now) isn't just about living with less. It's about enriching life in nonmaterial ways. But you can't get to that enriching part if you're so caught up in trying to meet your basic needs. 

I see this play out sometimes on those homesteading or Tiny House living shows and Youtube videos. You have to have a fair bit of money at the start to set yourself up for simple living, or at least gracious simple living. This differs from poverty, in that, with simple living, your needs are met (often with expensive solutions like solar panels), and with poverty, needs often aren't met. In the 18th and 19th centuries, only the wealthy or those with access to the patronage of the wealthy could play at being poor hermits. The only reason Thoreau could retreat to Walden Pond is because he was living on borrowed land and other people occasionally fed him, and he wasn't there for long.

I do like what Thoreau writes, though, about -- instead of trying to convince people to buy his baskets -- finding ways to make basket-selling unnecessary. I lost my job a couple of months ago, along with eight others on the same day, due to "restructuring." I'm taking my time thinking about what I want to do next and who I want to be for the last ---let's say third -- of my life. I don't want to jump back into the same desk job, the same hurly-burly and scampering and panicking and dumbing-down and tongue-biting and sheer boredom I underwent for the last 35 years. I want to find a way to consume less, require less, so that I can do lower-paying but more fulfilling work. I do find it interesting that some of the most meaningful and soul-satisfying jobs in society pay the least. We value football players and bank CEOs more than we value those who serve the displaced and homeless or teach our children, if financial compensation is the measuring stick. 

So how do I live in such a way that I don't have to peddle my baskets? I don't know quite yet, but I have an inkling that Segal is onto something. I've written a book about simple living, which is coming out in January 2026, and losing my employment will force me to really put my own words into practice. We'll see how it goes! I don't know which way I'll leap, but it promises to be exciting.