Outing myself as a hippy

hippy housetruck life for David MacGregor on ThoughtSpurs

I realise that I don't look much like a hippy - in the conventional sense, or the unconventional sense (given that we are talking hippy here).
But I am. I have no desire to live in a conventional house. And frankly, I am sick of consumer society. I want to split, man. Escape to a woody glade somewhere and commune with nature.

It's not about a green agenda and, as far as I know, I don't have any great desire to be a naturist. I just yearn for a simpler life. Where is my copy of Walden by Thoreau.

There's a line in Walden I like, about solitude:

"I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray?"

And this from my favourite chapter 'The Pond In Winter'

"After a still winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavouring to in vain to answer in my sleep. as what - how - where? But there was the dawning Nature , in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight. The snow lying deep on the earth dotted with young pines, and the very slope of the hill on which my house is placed seemed to say. Forward! Nature puts no question, and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution."

Anyone know how to make a cool teepee?

Check out Walden (here's an online annotated edition) - My penguin copy is ancient - a 1938 paperback edition from Penguin Illustrated Classics. It has a slip cover - odd concept. I'm a little annoyed - I just split the brittle glue of the spine when I pushed it down to transcribe the passage above. Oh well.

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