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 I continue my interview with Adrian S., a married man with a family who sold most of his possessions in search of a better life. He is disturbed about the direction the US is taking, politically, economically, and socially. Links to earlier parts of the interview can be found at the end of this post.
Jennifer Barry: So, do your kids have plans to go to college at some point, or start their own business? What do they think they want to do in their future?
Adrian S.: I’m definitely promoting the idea that life is not about getting a good job. I’m promoting the idea that being able to be entrepreneurial and finding out how to satisfy people’s needs is a better way of going about life.
I’m trying to be honest with them about college too, because I think the landscape of the world has changed. It’s not like a college degree is absolutely essential to have a fulfilling life. And that was the way it was always presented to me, but I suspect that they will want to go to college, but I just want them to go knowing why they’re there. I went to college just because it was just the thing you do after high school. My parents never really explained to me what the point was. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 11
 Jordan was unhappy in public school. I continue my interview with Adrian S., a married man with a family who sold most of his possessions in search of a better life. He is disturbed about the direction the US is taking, politically, economically, and socially. Links to earlier parts of the interview can be found at the end of this post.
Jennifer Barry: As I remember it, you had moved to that suburban town because it was supposed to be a good school district.
Adrian S.: I guess it was at some level, but I didn’t like the way they treated my kids. I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think any of these school districts, or any of the schools are good, because they are throttling the creativity of these children, showing, I think that schooling has become very scientific. This is one of the things I remember reading from John Taylor Gatto.
JB: Oh yeah, I’ve read his stuff.
AS: I don’t think public schooling is doing many of these kids any favors. One time we went to a fast food place because we were hungry, and Karen needed change. There was some confusion about our bill, and she swapped an item for another. And this poor kid could not do the math even when he took out a pencil and paper, he literally gave up, and he handed it to her, and she figured out what her bill was. And this guy was probably 19. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 10
 Retirees cut foreign vacations when the Dow falls. This is an excerpt from the October 2010 issue of Global Asset Strategist.
I continue my interview with Adrian S., a married man with a family who sold most of his possessions in search of a better life. He is disturbed about the direction the US is taking, both politically and economically. Links to earlier parts of the interview can be found at the end of this post.
Jennifer Barry: Bill Murphy has been saying for a while that he thinks the average American’s standard of living is going to fall 30%.
Adrian S.: Yes, I agree that I see that coming. The middle class is being cut at the knees right now. We look at the people that we’re staying with, our family, and they’re working very, very hard to keep things afloat. Looking years ahead, I believe there’s going to be war. It happens when you have these kinds of social cataclysms, and our son will soon become just the perfect age for a fighting young man, and so that’s one of the reasons that we want to get out. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 9
This is an excerpt from  the October 2010 issue of Global Asset Strategist.
I continue my interview with Adrian S., a married man with a family who sold most of his possessions in search of a better life. Links to earlier parts of the interview can be found at the end of this post.
Jennifer Barry: I know that you’ve been farther head of the curve than your wife Karen has been on a lot of things. Was she really as gung-ho as you to sell the house and travel around, or was she a little bit more skeptical than you were?
Adrian S.: No, I was the driver initially. I was the one who was always promoting the idea of making a break and she kind of went along with it, at some point she said that she agreed that we needed to sell our house. And then things just kind of fell in place after that. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 8
 This is an excerpt from the October 2010 issue of Global Asset Strategist.
I continue my interview with Adrian S., a married man with a family who sold most of his possessions in search of a better life. Links to earlier parts of the interview can be found at the end of this post.
Jennifer Barry: How long have you been home schooling your kids?
Adrian S.: It’s been a progression, so we started home schooling about 3 years before we left in 2007. So, once, it’s been a steady series of steps of getting further and further outside the box really, because once we started home schooling, that opened up whole new questions to ask. It’s a healthy thing, we should all be trying to question why we do what we do. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 7
This is an excerpt from the August 2010 issue of Global Asset Strategist.
In Canada and the US, they are commonly known as boomerang kids. They are adult children, usually in their twenties, who move back in with their parents after living independently for a while. Unlike past generations, living with parents after age 21 is not stigmatized, but rather applauded as a sensible measure to avoid racking up debt. By 2006, 43.5% of Canadians under 30 were sleeping in their old bedrooms, while in the US, 10% of Americans under age 35 have returned to their parents’ home.
For some young people, the decision is not whether to move back home, but whether to leave at all. Increasingly, the global trend is for adults to stay in their childhood bedroom well into their thirties. In Germany, dependent adult children are known as nesthockers or nest squatters. In France, pundits refer to “Tanguy syndrome,” named after a film about a 28 year old who refused to leave the family home. In New Zealand, the 20% of young men between the ages of 20 and 34 who live with parents are called “mummy’s boys.” Austria has its “Mama hotels” that are a comfortable refuge for Generation Y, while the UK has KIPPERS, or Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings. Continue reading Boomerang Kids
 Traveling used to be a lot more dangerous. While there have always been explorers, wanderers, and people who wanted to see what was over the next hill, this group used to be dominated by single men. After all, the world was dangerous, and travel was very slow and arduous. Your ship could sink, you could be felled by an exotic disease, or you could be fatally attacked by a wild animal at any time. Even if you survived, you would not see your loved ones for many years. Mail service was nonexistent in many locations, so contact was infrequent at best.
Fast forward to today, and technology has made exploring a whole lot easier. Now single women, couples and even families can jump on a plane and go. Tours and guidebooks are readily available to make your trip go smoother, with hotels and restaurants serving all but the most remote locations. Modern medical care can treat you if you are ill, and vaccines can even prevent diseases. Animals are rarely a danger outside rural areas. Contact is cheap and frequent with the internet, and you can post pictures of your travels to Facebook or your blog before you even return home! Continue reading Mobile Lifestyle
This is a continuation of my interview with Adrian S., a married man with a family who sold most of his possessions in search of a better life. Links to earlier parts of the interview can be found below.
Adrian S: In November 2009, we went to Panamá because we had not been out of the country much, we’re kind of provincial people, we only speak one language. My two children really haven’t seen much except suburban life except for that brief time in the countryside of Oregon. And we thought it would be a good idea to go to Panamá. We stayed three months there, and that was a real eye opener. We saw that things were possible outside of the United States. There were a lot of things that were shocking. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 4
 Bees have to work hard in Vermont. Jennifer Barry: So you didn’t find an ecovillage that worked for your family?
Adrian S: No, we got discouraged by not being able to find communities that agreed with us in fundamental ways. But we did stay in some very nice places for a while, like we stayed in Oregon for the longest time.
JB: That didn’t surprise me, I felt that you would end up in the Pacific Northwest. I didn’t think New England would work out for you.
AS: I like Vermont, but the growing season there is too short. I just didn’t see how you could have people practically living in such a cold, cold place. And they are burning an awful lot of their forests up there just to stay warm. Continue reading Stranger in His Own Land, Part 3
Jayne Peters' life was a house of cards.
When I heard that the mayor of Coppell, Jayne Peters, had killed her 19 year-old daughter, Corinne, and then turned the gun on herself, this tragedy struck close to home. First, Coppell is literally close to me – I live about 20 miles away [...]
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