Four hours bread labor, they called it, the work they would do to earn the money they needed to live. Four hours a day. That was their goal when they left New York City in 1932 to begin farmsteading in the Green Mountains of Vermont. This four hours of bread labor would then earn them four hours a day to dedicate to intellectual, avocational pursuits--research, travel, writing, speaking and teaching. For more than fifty years, first in Vermont and then in Maine, this is exactly what Scott and Helen Nearing did. Their classic books on self-reliance, Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life, are compiled in one handy paperpack titled simply The Good Life. As the FoodShed Summer Reading Pick of the Week, The Good Life serves as a bit of a how-to as well as a who, what, when, where and why about crafting a life of your own, a life that balances economics, health, ethics and society. My copy is dog-eared and ripped from carrying it from carpool to swimming pool, hammock to home.
Yes, The Good Life contains a great deal of politics without a great deal of context. Yes, it goes into excruciating detail about everything from gathering sap from sugar maple trees to building a stone wall by hand. And yes, it paints the picture of a rather hard life. But. It is, cover-to-cover, infused with passion, purpose and the power of possibilities realized. And that works for me.
The Nearing's last hand-built home and farm, Forest Farm in Harborside Maine, is now preserved as The Good Life Center, dedicated to advancing their commitment to social justice and simple living. The center offers residential and visiting fellowships, stewardships and educational programs, and it serves as a resource and network for scholars, homesteaders, gardeners, social and political activists, and students of simple and sustainable living. Check it out at www.goodlife.org.
Four hours bread labor. Four hours intellectual pursuits. How's that for a new kind of workday? What would you do with those four hours? I think of the Nearings every single morning when I think through the things-to-do for the day. And I hope, with a little bit more success each day, I build the hours of my life as thoughtfully as they built their stone walls.
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4 comments:
Hey Pattie,
I don't want to ruin any idealized notions that you have of the Nearings, but...
One of the reasons we ended up in Maine had a lot to do with the Nearings, and the 70s back-to-the-landers in general, and since we've been living here, quite a few of my assumptions about them have been challenged.
They had a lot of help, both physically and financially. The countless young visitors who pilgrimaged to them were always put to work, and they hired local workers to build their second Cape Rosier home. While they spoke of their blueberry and sugaring businesses as being sufficient to support them, it has surfaced lately that they didn't make money at either venture, instead relying on investment money for living expenses.
This is not to say that they didn't work hard (they did!) or they don't deserve the accolades (they do!), but that they were human, not the super-human, 4 hours of work a day, super-healthy vegans they portrayed themselves to be (both accepted B12 shots but kept it private, and Scott was quite frail at age 100, despite Helen's claims that he was extremely healthy until the end).
Jean Hay Bright's book "Meanwhile, next door to the Good Life" was an illuminating read for me.
Liz: Thank you so much for that insight! I would love to read the book you suggest so that I can flesh out these icons more realistically. I had some mixed feelings to some of the things in The Good Life, but I found a great deal of good, and I'm thinking that's the best we can ask for regarding everyone we meet or hear about, yes?
Those are great books. I always have them close at hand when I want to remember people who stood by their convictions. Or actually lived their convictions. The Nearings are still around in spirit. Check out anything written by Eliot Coleman, who purchased part of the Nearing plot as a youth and is a commercial gardener there now with his wife.
My first time on your post. Christa and Celendula & Concrete provided the link...
Eliot's Coleman's Four Season Harvest book is what inspired me to finally get a coldframe. If he can grow veggies all year in Maine, I certainly can all year in Georgia!
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