One Year

[Yeah, so, I started this post 31 July 2008 and never finished it... so now, nearly a year later (5 may 2009), I'm publishing it as-is.)

So it's been over a year since I finally left the part of the country I called home for most of my life. It's been a damned great year. I've learned so much--and to me, learning is what life's about. As of tomorrow, it's a year ago since I arrived in Hawaii. That's where I learned the most vital lesson so far on this journey.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I was pretty much living a life of luxury* with a job paying $14/hr, and splitting already-low rent and utilities three-ways with the coolest roommates in the world. I knew I had to leave these comforts behind (since 2001, my primary motivation in life was a dream that told me to 'go to the monastery'), but I really didn't know just how far that would have to go.

I told myself I'd save up "enough" money. Problem is, what is enough money? Enough for what? Well, for anything. Anything could happen, so I would have liked an inexhaustible backing (as I mentioned, I became obsessed with winning the lottery). But I was also realistic enough to know that a couple thousand dollars would probably suffice. If I was going to be in the monastery, I could sell my car when I got there--not because I'd need the money, but because I wouldn't need the car. Do you see the problem with the way I was thinking? If you do, you're better off than I was. I wasn't thinking about how much I needed the money, or how it might be useful; it just never entered my mind to have no money at all.

----- ---- --- -- -
*A couple of weeks ago, James Funderburk called for a chat. I told him about all the things I'd done in Seattle so far, and he told me he didn't get to do much while he lived here, because he had to work so much, living on "the verge of homelessness." I reflected that for me, the "verge of homelessness" is a step away from that condition, rather than the last step before it. To me, now, the verge of homelessness seems like a leisurely, decadent lifestyle.