Harvest: Reflections on our Life Style

There are so many ways to live life.

Some of them are unimaginable for us.

Some times we get so sucked into our life-style that we forget that other ways of life are also valid or even possible. At least it happens to me once in a while.

Adam and I have been cruising up and down the incredibly extensive length of California for the past few months. It's crazy to think that 1400 km separate Ensenada from Arcata. It doesn't feel like such a big distance when you're staring out the window of a moving vehicle, with the Pacific Ocean in the background and the changing landscape matching the constant transformation of our lives, of the world.

We have been moving slowly but surely, not really knowing what awaits but having faith in the universe to support us. Some of our plans have had disappointing outcomes, like the "Dream Machine," a 1986 broken down van that we left behind in Los Angeles after we realized it had a transmission problem that couldn't be fixed at the time for lack of funds.

We made it to Humboldt county at the beginning of October.
Every year thousands of nomads congregate in that area looking for seasonal work, so it wasn't such a surprise to find dear family walking around in the Farmer's Market or in the bathroom line inside the co-op.

Ever since the Rainbow Gathering of Montana, I have been thinking about the many ways of alternative life styles and the way that "Babylon" or "the tax payers" perceive us. Being in Arcata during harvest season made me think even more about this and also made me ask deeper questions about the way that I have been living my life.

When I first found Rainbow last year in Guatemala, I perceived it as a global family of epic travelers with amazing stories. Depending mostly in mutual aid and organizing without hierarchies, it seemed like the utopia I had dreamt for a long time. The gathering in Guatemala was very small, perhaps 300 people at the peak day. The Palenque gathering was a lot bigger, with maybe 2,000 people gathered on the 21st. But the National Rainbow Gathering of Montana had approximately 10,000 people in attendance, and it was relatively small compared to previous gatherings in the States.

Ten thousand people gathered in the woods, eating, shitting and sleeping for free! Of course there are gonna be problems when something grows so big. Different people have different intentions and different ideas of what a perfect world would be like and about what the Rainbow Family means. And of course it's not the same to be just a few kids traveling in some small town that rarely sees visitors than being part of a gigantic group of people flooding a small community with homelessness and what's often understood as freeloading.

This is something that many people questioned when I was traveling without money and which seems a lot more clear to me now: the more people that do this, the more difficult it becomes.
I tried recycling food at the Farmer's market in Arcata and I thought that maybe being 8 months pregnant, well spoken and looking clean would help me get some potatoes, but I was wrong. The farmers that I talked to looked upset and told me nothing was wasted while they packed their leftovers in cardboard boxes that probably ended up in a dumpster later that day.

I don't know if it's just my bias perspective, but it seems to me like everyday more and more people in the world are voluntarily choosing "poverty," trading security for freedom. In the States this choice is facilitated by an extremely wasteful society and government programs like Food Stamps. Because let's face it: the majority of jobs are not fun. There are a few lucky people out there doing what they love and getting paid for it, but many of those dream jobs are also very damaging to the environment or to society. I personally know that the job that paid me the most money when I was doing film was a manipulative corporate video that I still feel guilty for doing.

Many people hate their jobs, but they would hate uncertainty even more. Many people are not as privileged as to be able to truly leave everything behind and still find food to feed their families and other ways to survive. But for those of us who are young and still have the energy to deal with it, nomadic, low or no income life is a dream. It has its disadvantages and its difficult moments, but so does any life style.

This group of homefree travelers is not at all an homogeneous mass.
There are rebellious youngsters looking for adventure, who have many times grown up abused in foster homes, addicted to all sorts of things, passionate about music and resigned to an early death. Many of these people accept themselves as the scum of the earth and declare war on the very society that feeds them.
There are also people who grew up in relative privilege, who have experienced the artificial abundance that can be purchased with money and who decide to give that up in the search of a spiritual breakthrough.
There are people who became homeless against their will and later on decided to embrace it and keep moving.
There are people who are simply searching for freedom.
There are people who are all sorts of combinations between the simplistic descriptions above, and people who make their choices for reasons that I cannot even imagine or attempt to describe.

But the point is, for whatever reason we are choosing to do so, there are more and more people everyday who decide to stop participating in the cycle of production, but who still need to consume resources in order to survive. And this is when the people who wake up every morning to go to work get really resentful and pissed off. Hey, I get it. I can totally see how this seem unfair. But it's also really easy to see how other people "oppress" us and to ignore the way we oppress others.

One thing is clear to me: not just because you have money to pay for something it means you deserve it any more than the people who don't have money to pay for it, especially when it comes to food. Daniel Suelo said it once in a way that seemed pretty clear to me. People call him a freeloader because he takes what's given freely to him, but what about the people in the world that take what's given freely by nature and then SELL it and make a profit? Driving through Northern California we passed a lot of logging spots and Adam would always make me reflect about those incomplete landscapes by wondering aloud how this land looked back in the day, before there were roads and towns and "civilization."

The tax payers in Arcata turn their noses to us. A strong looking old lady yells at us from her mobility scooter, ironically decorated with Tibetan flags and peace symbols, because we are sitting on the sidewalk. We immediately move our stuff and our bodies to make space for her to pass, apologizing, and she looks at us with hatred and says: "Yeah, you should be sorry. And if you were truly sorry you wouldn't do this!"
"Wow," one of my friends answered, "we just moved for you, no need to be rude." She then backed up to pass through the spot again and announced she was gonna report us to the manager of the store for loitering in the property. We grabbed our backpacks and walked over to the plaza, where a guy that was passing in his pick up truck yelled from the window: "get some lives!"

The funniest thing about Arcata and other small towns in Northern California is that in those places and during this season is exactly the time when all these "hippies" (many times coming from very far away places like Japan and Spain), are looking for work and contributing to the economy of the world.

It's seems a little bit like envy. A lot like resentment. They see it in a way in which their taxes are funding the lives of people who don't contribute anything back. After all, they think, it's their tax money which pays for those sidewalks and parks where we hang out. It's their tax money which pays for the salaries of the cops who fine us for playing music. Their tax money which pays for increased Forest Service and imports police force from out of State to monitor Rainbow Gatherings. Money, money, money. But we often forget that money is just a tool, and the resources that money is buying are being ripped away ruthlessly from poor countries that can't defend themselves. Look at all the mess in Central America over mining, so that we can replace our smart phones when a new model comes out...

The food stamps argument is a big aspect of it, and that's why people like Suelo don't use food stamps. For those in other countries who might not be familiar with Food Stamps, it is a government program that helps people with little or no income by giving them a small amount of money a month that can only be used to buy non-prepared food. In some rare places, like LA, you can buy fast food and other hot foods, but in most places it's just for groceries. The Farmer's Markets in some areas give a little extra when you convert the electronic food stamps to tokens, and in places like San Diego and New Orleans there are even a couple of Farmer's Markets that double them, to encourage people with low-income to eat healthy.

Why are we taking help from a government we claim to reject? Well, for one, because we need to eat and although many times the dumpsters are full of abundance, some other times they are just full of GMOs. Or locked. Adam makes the argument that most tax money goes towards financing war and he sees no problem with taking a small amount of that money and redirecting it to feeding people. If he could take all that war money an turn it into food, he would. And I bet many would agree with him. I used to feel uncomfortable about food stamps, but now I see them as a tool to get some foods that would normally be inaccessible to us, like chia and organic "luxuries." But I don't want to depend on this and especially now that we are soon gonna have a baby I would like to be as coherent as possible. Because one thing, at least in my case, remains true from the hateful arguments of the people who resent our life-style: I'm not giving or producing as much as I can. Since last year I have been feeling a little bit dissatisfied with traveling for the sake of traveling and now it's time to commit with strong projects that can help create the world that we dream of.

We have talked to many friends who are planning to go to Mexico this year to travel and get involved in projects. Adam and I want to settle down on some land, grow some food and build something. I have learned a lot this year about plants and herbs, and although I don't have any papers that certify me as a knowledgeable person, I'm excited to share my new discoveries and keep learning about nature, the land, and health. I don't know how much time I will have at the beginning with a little one needing my full attention, but I have high hopes to little by little start giving more and more. I want to possibly give free English lessons for children of whatever nearby community we end up living in, help pregnant women to gain confidence in their bodies and to nourish themselves with good food and wise herbs, get involved in translating and creating a zine library or info shop, and many other dreams for spreading the message that has inspired my life for the past couple of years: reject the indoctrination of impossibility, take what you need, give what you can, always love.

This is what is going on right now in my life and my mind... We will be in California for another couple of weeks, waiting for the arrival of our baby, who is due on November 26, and then we are heading South to Mexico or even farther depending on how things unfold.