Better Off!

I have started reading the first few chapters of Better Off!: Flipping the Switch on Technology. Really interesting and quite inspiring. I think it is going on my Christmas List (coming soon, I recommend and review [and tell you how to make or find] several sustainable and/or interesting gift ideas). Here is an excerpt from chapter One;

Her reservations about clothes-washing notwithstanding, Mary was on the spot. Our relationship had heated up well beyond the level of friendship. Fortunately for me, she had never been emotionally attached to her job, and the potted plant in her office simply did not satisfy her hankering for the country. On the other hand, she had a list of unanswered questions: How heavy was the work? How long were the hours? What about refrigeration? What about food preparation? When I pointed out that people have been living without modern gadgetry for thousands of years, she finally gave in, brimming with curiosity to see how they did it.

We tied the knot at St. Paul's Church ten days before the scheduled arrival at our new home. To live in close quarters with a group like this, you had to be properly married. It would be premature to say, however, whether ours was a marriage of convenience.

We decided to shoot for an expedition of eighteen months—enough time to experience a full change of season. Mary agreed to go along on one condition: that she would get the deciding vote in the decision of where to live after we finished our "fieldwork."

And so, svelte assistant at my side, I set out in the general direction of a still-mysterious clique of manual laborers, imbued with one lone hope: that they might lend me a hand in my experiment. How hard and time-consuming was this life "without laborsaving machines"? And was it one Mary and I would consider leading ourselves? I dearly hoped the exercise would not amount to a sheer test of endurance. What I really wanted to discover was a balance between too much machinery and too little, or better yet, how to arrive at it wherever one found oneself. This knowledge was what modern society lacked and what I hoped my yet-unknown neighbors would provide some clue to.

If you have any ideas of what I should include on my list, leave a comment, or email me at TheWayFilms@yahoo.com. I will be reviewing other books, and The Journey to Wild Divine sent me a copy of their software to check out, so I'll let you know what I (and my family and friends) think, and be reviewing several other items as well.