Chapter Ten: Dropping Out While Trying to Make Sense of it All

I took to living out of my car. It wasn't easy at first. I had major concerns about the lifestyle: the fear of being carjacked, how I was going to stay clean without regular access to a shower, how I would sleep in an economy car that obviously wasn't suited to be a camper, finding a "campsite" for the night where I wouldn't be ticketed by law enforcement [sleeping in your car is illegal in every city in Southern California except for Santa Monica-and try finding adequate parking there] or freak out the neighbors who might be worried that the guy hanging out in his car is plotting to rob them or go an some kind of murderous rampage or rape frenzy. All these issues would work themselves out over the next few months. I already had a job working part time at an auto parts store, so I had a small income to pay for food and gas.



Through time I decided that the minimalist lifestyle suited me just fine. It wasn't that I was lazy. I had worked long and hard hours before in the past. I had both personal and philosophic reasons for striving to survive while earning peanuts. Ever since I was a teenager it seemed to me that something was seriously wrong with the material society in which I was raised. Since government is a reflection of society, that meant there was something seriously wrong with our whole socio-political system. Earning just enough money to sustain myself while living out of my car meant that I wouldn't be earning enough to pay anything in terms of federal income tax that would ultimately be used by a government that wastes away our capital resources on terminally inefficient bureaucracies and unethical, legally unjustifiable wars. Not having any children to support and not being involved in a monogamous relationship meant that I had the privilege of choosing a life of poverty rather than work to support a government that is in the process of destroying the future of our country. Once I started living out of my car I started to catch up on a whole lot of reading that I had been putting off for so many years. Over the next couple of years I read over 30 books, all biographies and historical narratives. What I learned only strengthened my views of a society and government gone mad. From an essay titled "The Humanist Revolution" written by T.H. Huxley to books like "The Prize" by Daniel Yergin and "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Hundred Years of Western Civilization" by Jacque Barzun, the observations of people much more intelligent than myself concerning the socio-economic unsustainability of the worldwide movement towards material based societies became vividly clear. I could go on and on with this argument, but I'll spare you the rhetoric.

Political philosophy aside, I had always been dysfunctional when it came to personal finance. The less money I had, the less money I'd waste. I'd be forced to align my financial priorities along the lines of bare bones survival. I figured that in the long run, the experience would do me some good. Eventually I'd have to get a job where I could earn more money and get a place of my own. Then, hopefully, I would've learned a thing or two about being responsible with my earnings. At least that's what I hoped.

Next up: Forgiveness and a Promise Kept.