{"id":12718,"date":"2012-12-26T08:57:39","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T15:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=12718"},"modified":"2012-12-26T08:57:39","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T15:57:39","slug":"animism-atavism-and-the-paradox-of-self-sufficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/26\/animism-atavism-and-the-paradox-of-self-sufficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Animism, atavism, and the paradox of self-sufficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I’ll step aside and let Joel speak:<\/a><\/p>\n

The first rule of living on the edge is this: You\u2019re in charge. You\u2019re responsible. If something goes wrong, nobody\u2019s going to come and fix it for you. There\u2019s no point grumbling and waiting for the guy with the wrench, because the guy with the wrench is you.<\/p>\n

That brings things to a very basic and vital level. I used to be consumed with worry over things like who was undermining me at the office, or how badly a customer was going to screw me on draft revisions, or how to deal with the next-door neighbor who played his piano at 3 AM and drove my wife crazy. Seriously, I used to brood over things like that. Now I wonder if the chickens will lay enough eggs tomorrow. I worry about the state of my stovepipe. Will the water freeze? Will coyotes take my kitten? Will I have enough firewood?<\/p>\n

There are two major differences between the old worries and the new ones. First, the new set of worries are worth worrying about. Those are things that can actually do harm to me and mine. Second, they\u2019re all things I can do something about. I can get more chickens, or kill or separate the one that\u2019s upsetting the others. I can clean the damn stovepipe more often, insulate the pipes more heavily, go out and cut more firewood. Zoe\u2019s pretty much on her own \u2013 though she\u2019s napping happily right next to me as I write this.<\/p>\n

Those old quotidian worries used to make me very unhappy, because I was always dependent on other people for their solution and I felt helpless against them. Now I\u2019ve got worries about things that can actually hurt me, but they don\u2019t make my unhappy because I can get off my ass and do something about them any time I need to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, I’ll step aside and let Joel speak: The first rule of living on the edge is this: You\u2019re in charge. You\u2019re responsible. If something goes wrong, nobody\u2019s going to come and fix it for you. There\u2019s no point grumbling and waiting for the guy with the wrench, because the guy with the wrench is you. That brings things to a very basic and vital level. I used to be consumed with worry over things like who was undermining me at the office, or how badly a customer was going to screw me on draft revisions, or how to deal…<\/p>\n

Continue readingAnimism, atavism, and the paradox of self-sufficiency<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,26,27,28,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-off-grid","category-practical-freedom","category-preparedness","category-privacy-and-self-ownership","category-rural-and-small-town-living","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}