the year 2000, in one of my daily trips, while crossing the forest, I stopped my time, and reflecting a while I saw what I wanted in this life, I said, I love nature and I love walking on the land of my ancestors, in these places my roots are more profound, and this gives me happiness feeling alive part of an organism-the Alps and its inhabitants "When I considered my human potential in this environment.
Sounds great, but… what are the challenges?
Simone, thank you for sharing. Living immersed in nature is certainly a great joy. But hey - there must be challenges too. More than half of humanity now lives in cities, and there is a clear trend for more and more people, especially in the developing world, to move out of villages and into megacities like Lagos or Mexico Cities. China would be Exhibit A.
All these people find it difficult to make a living in the countryside; or maybe they want more opportunities for social mobility; maybe some are simply bored, I don’t know. What about you? What makes you different, that you can actually live surrounde by nature? How did you overcome those challenges?
Wonderful. But?
Simone, like Alberto before me I found myself admiring the extasy you seem to experience in your environment, but also wondering how you made a living in a rural environment, where most people struggle. Most European rural areas survive on EU funding programmes of various sorts. Is this how you too managed to switch to a rural livelihood? Or are you a “pure” entrepreneur and have set up a business? What challeneges did you face? And - from a broader perspective - do you think a return to more rural settings is the answer we are looking for in response to the challenges of the XXI century?
Your views would be extremely appreciated!!
under penalty of loss of identity
Hi Albert, I followed very European policy, I had, I saw with my own eyes the waste of public money. us rural montania we have never been heard, the most numerous were manipulated, under penalty of loss of identity
which identity bring in Europe? 80% of European territory are mountains, the express identity in daily gestures the children learn from parents
Returning to European funds, these funds are used for providing a blessed new jobs, new lives full of identities, serve to create real opportunities and concrete. living a rural free
Fond of liberty
Some people really love being in a rural environment, and don’t ever get bored of it.
Take my brother, for instance. 35, stays at home and takes care of his young kid, while his wife (lawyer) drives an hour to work in the city.
He’s obsessed by things made by hand. I don’t know how he finds the patience to do it! Hey, he even makes his own ciment brocks by hand (from wood molds he made himself). He landscaped his whole beautiful garden with hand made bricks. He loves looking at his huge red fishes living in his two artificial ponds (that he dug by hand in the middle of the night, because during day time he has to take care of his child). He does a lot of gardening. I mean a lot. He grows everything from seeds. He has about 10 varieties of rasberries and blackberries, even yellow rasberries and black rasperries. I had never seen anything like it! He grows kiwis in a zone 3 climate (he managed to find a variety that supports cold temperatures). He knows about every new garden plant that exists. He spends hours on the Internet learning about garden plants.
He makes his own yogourt. He bakes muffins for his family. I don’t think he pushed his experiment to go as far as baking his own bread… and growing his own wheat.
He somehow needs a lot of liberty. Lots and lots of liberty.
He would probably be very unhappy in a bigger city.
He teaches private lessons of kung fu as a living. People come to his house for lessons. He transformed his basement into a kung fu studio.
Being weird runs in the family… I know my son is to think differently too. And the daughter of my brother will be even more different. How I can predict that: he amplifies things that I remember doing when I was young, like reverting letters and numbers (dyslexia). Einstein was dyslexic as well. Nothing to worry about! Just a sing of difference.
Freedom and peace
Nice pic Simone. (It reminds me of the beautiful Canadian forests.) Fresh air in the lungs. Bright blue sky in winter, pale shades of blue or cool grays for shadows on the pure white crisp snow ground. Silver stars in the night surrounding you.
“Irresistible urge to not back down”. You probably were gifted by the experience of oneness (non-locality). Called bliss.
Loss of identity
Hi Simone
While sympathising with your frustration with the way EU funds are mismanaged (I saw it with my eyes in a very different context, the international development one), I also wondered what you really meant by ‘loosing your identity’. I feel that a lot of your argument on loss of identity is not just felt by people who live on mountains, shared by millions of people who live in plains, hills and cities across Europe. For some, it’s a simple human reaction to a world that is changing rapidly around us. Edgeryders in a way is a response to this challenge, a way to look for answers through the experiences of people like you. Identities are never really lost, they simply change with time, and this change should be managed carefully and respectfully.
For some, however, “loss of identity” is just a general excuse to reject modernity, diversity, change, a nostalgic idealisation of a past that never existed, and sometimes an excuse to blame others when things are not as we would like them. For example the mountains of Europe - like in the rest of the world - were historically very poor areas, based on subsistence farming and pastoralism, with minimal economic exchanges with the outside world for obvious logistical reasons. Modern development in transportation and changes in lifestyles have brought outsiders and therefore unprecedented wealth to mountain areas until then cut off. Yet, these areas have recently been very critical of migration patterns within Europe, with unprecedented levels of suspiciuos against outsiders (even when from the same country) and with an infamous case of a country refusing a proposal to grant automatic citizenship to the grandchildren of immigrants.
What I am trying to say is this: what I hear from your story is a wonderful personal experience of someone who has found a place that is right for him in this wonderful land, but I struggle to understand what the underlying lesson for many others is… I would be really grateful if you could tell us - even in Italian if it’s easier, and we’ll translate.
Thanks!
Alberto
Questo è importante
Simone: passo all’italiano perché questo è importante.
Alberto MZ sta dicendo una cosa che a noi interessa moltissimo. E cioè: la tua libertà di vivere in un ambiente rurale è fatta di diversi componenenti. Uno di questi è il tuo attaccamento alle radici: stare in montagna ti dà tanta gioia che ti fa superare le difficoltà. Ma forse ce n’è un altro: le politiche europee per lo sviluppo rurale, che iniettano denaro nelle aree montane e consentono loro di sostenere più posti di lavoro di quelli che ci sarebbero altrimenti.
È così? Il tuo lavoro dipende (anche) da sussidi pubblici, per esempio i sussidi agricoli? Potresti vivere in montagna se questi fossero ritirati? Scrivi pure in italiano, alla peggio ti traduco io, ma questa cosa va capita.
European policies for rural development
niente fondi per lo sviluppo, andiamo avanti come possiamo ci sentiamo abbandonati dalla comunità
si viviamo molto bene anche senza fondi
pultroppo ci siamo fidati in passato e abbiamo fatto prestiti, che dovevano essere coperti dagli aiuti che non sono arrivati. dove sono finiti i nostri aiuti?
ti passa la voglia di chiedere aiuto fai come noi arrangiati, oppure battiti per i tuoi diritti
sono fondi rurali. chi sono i Rurali?
You can find lucid memory
Hello Alberto, fortunately they are in good company, overcome everyday challenges. find a sense of belonging sense self-esteem. The concerns we face, with that instinct that wild nature offers me. challenges:
La sfida dentro e fuori di noi
Ciao Simone, sono molto affascinato dalla interazione che esiste tra la sensazione di vivere una sfida prima di tutto nei confronti di sè stesso e la sensazione di essere sfidante nei confronti di altre persone, della società. C’è una linea sottile in cui queste due sensazioni si toccano e si attraversano. La sfida verso sè stessi, dal mio punto di vista viene sempre prima, comunque; prima di tutto stare, o sentirsi, da solo in qualunque luogo, anche senza comodità e immersi nella natura, oppure semplicemente rinchiusi dentro sè stessi anche in un contesto di apparente socialità allenta alcune tensioni, ma ne produce altre a livello psicologico. Qualunque sia l’isolamento che una persona che fa una scelta di isolamento decide di vivere, lo fa nei confronti di quello che offre il contesto in cui è abituato a vivere, del quale si vuole provare a spogliare, a liberare.
Ognuno di noi quando fugge, o semplicemente se ne va, oppure resta e si ribella ( a seconda delle età i tipi di ribellione possono anche cambiare, ma sussiste la scelta in sè) lo fa perchè non si ritrova in quello che la realtà in cui vive la propria esperienza, offre.
La vera sfida, anche laddove comunque qualcosa c’è come ricorda Alberto riferendosi al contesto che garantiscono le istituzioni che governano ad esempio l’arrivo di fondi finalizzati a non fare spopolare le zone montane o a far continuare alcune tradizioni popolari, è il voler uscire dalla propria esperienza per provare nuovi paradigmi, senza pregiudizi, con l’apertura mentale di chi sa che per forza di cose la propria esperienza è così piccola e unica che ovunque ce ne sono altre che lo aspettano e che, potenzialmente, sanno o possono accoglierlo meglio.
Da questo punto di vista mi piace ricordare la complessa semplicità di J.Krishnamurti che affermava proprio la necesssità di un cambio di paradigma come modalità di evitare di restare chiusi dentro a steccati preconcetti siano essi di carattere politico, religioso, sociale evitando i guru o le vie semplici guidate da altri che non siano sè stessi; o Bruce Lee che vinse le chiusure del mondo orientale nei confronti della condivisione dei segreti della propria arte, inventandone una sua che voleva insegnare a tutti…
Voglio ricordarvi per questo una splendida canzone di Eddie Vedder per salutare con gioia la voglia di cambiare nei confronti della propria società di riferimento…lasciando stare come è finita perchè non era certo come il protagonista voleva che finisse…solo per assaporare insieme il profumo della libertà di scegliere…