Starting Over

A few coworkers were discussing the relatively recent trend of "Tiny Houses" and the perceived benefits versus the negatives.  This discussion evolved into one about the more generic wish to simplify.  The interpretations of this ranged from winning the lottery and buying remote land to just moving to a smaller house.  It seems like Tiny Houses keeps most of life the same but just deletes some comfort from that same reality.
My comment, "I want to sell everything and travel on the cheap for the rest of my life."

I'm assuming this exists in many cultures, but the idea of throwing off the shackles of work, of possessions, of interconnected responsibilities runs deep in America.  America was built on the idea of carving out a new life as the country slowly migrated west.  The image of the cowboy riding off into the sunset is part of many fantasies.
Elizabeth Greenwood wrote Playing Dead - about people who fake their death in order to start over.  While not addressed directly in the book, the idea of walking away from everything by faking one's death is just an attempt at simplification.  Albeit this rather drastic way to simplify is more often used to ameliorate one (or a few) specific problems.  I enjoyed the book even as it was written from a very Millennial perspective.  Her personal narrative shows the consequences of making some choices early without thinking about the long term implications.  I suspect this is something everyone does to some extent.  Faking death ultimately just appears to create lots of new complications in the end.

Cheryl Strayed tried to write about her experiences hiking the Pacific Trail.  I admire her quest and success in taking on the challenge, but her writing reeks of self-help, and the self-help genre approaches a status somewhere between a cult and a drug.  While self-help books may give short term relief, they too quickly need to be reinforced by another.  And another.  Sadly, Strayed is more Brand than honest inspiration now.

Bill Bryson hiked (most of) the Appalachian trail and wrote about it as only he could.  Mr. Bryson is a bit of an enigma, he comes across as very condescending in The Lost Continent.  Small-town America deserves better; the heartland is only as terrible as he makes it out to be if a traveler demands that it is.  I suspect his interaction with the British is far different than mine has been.  The people in small-town England could be small-town Americans if it weren't for the accent.  Having spent a few days in Dusseldorf, Germany several years ago, I found it as charming as Gary, Indiana.  A Walk in the Woods was more genuine, less snarky, more personal.  Bill Bryson didn't use the Appalachian Trail to start over, but he paints it in places as a form of contemplation.

Geraldine Largay was determined to hike the Appalachian Trail at the age of 66.  Originally with a partner, she ended the adventure on her own, and it ended tragically.  From the Donner Party on, American history is littered with the dead.  As the saying goes, "Every corpse on Everest was once a very motivated person."

It is probably impossible to talk about this without remembering Chris McCandless.  After bouncing around the country immediately after college and (literally) burning his money, he ended up in Alaska.  He hiked out on the Stampede Trail near Healy, before living in a bus bear Denali National Park for a few months.  Surging rivers prevented his return, and that bus ended up being where his life ended.  Whether thought of as idealistic or a degenerate, his story is part of the American lexicon, with Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, PBS' excellent documentary, or Sean Penn's subpar movie all telling his story.

Christopher Knight really did throw off the shackles for a long time.  A new book (I haven't read it yet) out by Michael Finkel tells the story of how he lived in the Maine woods for 27 years - living off of what he was able to steal from nearby homes and cabins.  Mr. Finkel wrote a riveting article about this in 2013 and I can't help but wonder what new information will be included in the book given that the end of that article seems to indicate the end of that relationship, "...we are not friends ... I’m not going to miss you at all."  Michael Finkel's book True Story - another book about people tragically starting over - was good, so I'll probably have to read The Stranger in the Woods.  Hopefully it gives a little insight on how Mr. Knight is fairing now.

And among these more notable cases, there are countless tales never told of people doing something, anything, to start over.

I try to be very honest with myself and the chances of selling everything and traveling on the cheap for the next few decades is very, very unlikely.  Not impossible, but the odds are terribly long.  The events recounted here suggest no shortage of situations where these things end very tragically.  But I can't help but wonder what else exists from vagabond and vagrant through beige suburbanite, and where on that continuum I am ... or could be.