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rebooting your life In the book A Trip to the Stars, the character Alma takes a break from her life or at least from the one that she knew. After a stint in the military she does nothing but wander from island to island in the South Pacific living off of her savings from the military. To make this a little more real this was during the Vietnam War so she was already in that part of the world and there may have been some other form of savings that I am forgetting at the moment. The point that I am trying to make is that she just stopped playing the day to day game that most people play. Work wasn't the focus of her life and she wasn't intent on meeting some societal requirement of how a person should live. Marriage, career and all of the rest were of no interest to her. Instead of doing any of those things, she found a cheap place to live on an island and stayed there for a time. While she was there she swam, read books, looked at the stars and thought about life. Eventually she would move on to another island and start the process over again and to me that sounds like a great way to live. She wasn't a hippie trying to drop out from life, she just needed and a break and to me that makes sense. Later in the book she wander into that kind of a lifestyle and that's when her life became self destructive rather than carefree of insightful. I envy being able to just forget about everything for a year and I could probably do it myself if I was willing to sacrifice a few things to have enough money to make it possible. I could sell my place and that would give me a nice start as far as money is concerned. To make things even easier I could get rid of my car as well. Then all that would be left would be to put my furniture and remaining possessions into storage. Once that was done, I'd be free. Bills would no longer be a part of my life, nor would I have to worry about a job. Without one I wouldn't need the other. Of course there has to be a reason to set me on this kind of journey and I'm not sure if I have one. Unlike Alma I haven't been in a war for the past few years. Even though my job feels like a battle it isn't the same thing. Nor do I have any serious emotional traumas haunting me like she did in the book. She didn't have any family or strong emotional attachments to keep her grounded while I have both. There isn't much to escape from in my life except my job, but the idea of not having to worry about money for a year sounds like a great plan. Yes, there would be the struggle of starting over once the savings dried up, but I'd see the world differently than I do now. |