Living The Good Life With Helen And Scott Nearing

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To put it another Way: There's something going on here! The Nearings may not be right... but they sure as heck look to be a whole lot less wrong than most of the rest of the people in our society.

So what's their secret? How have the Nearings preserved their health so well for all these years? Why are they so serene and confident and happy? How have they managed to do what so many of us never manage to do?And how have they managed to do it so well?

Well, there's no big mystery to the success enjoyed by the Nearings. As a matter of fact, they wrote a book-Living the Good Lifetwenty-three years ago that bared all their secrets to the world Far too few of us, however, seem to have read that book... and those of us who did read it frequently seem to have forgotten just how good and sensible and valuable that manual is.

So here-for everyone who never got around to reading Living the Good Life in the first place ... and for everyone who did read it but never got around to putting its wealth of bedrock information into practice-is an excerpted cram course in some of the basics of Helen and Scott Nearing's way of life. Enjoy, enjoy. And then, if you're one of the more clever among us, you 'll want to get a copy of this most important book for your very own (available from any good bookstore or Mother's Bookshelf). And after that, if you're one of the very clever among us ... you'll probably begin to pattern your own life after the lives of this amazing couple!

We left the city with three objectives in mind.

The first was economic. We sought to make a depression-free living, as independent as possible of the commodity and labor markets, which could not be interfered with by employers, whether businessmen, politicians, or educational administrators.

Our second aim was hygienic. We wanted to maintain and improve our health. We knew that the pressures of city life were exacting, and we sought a simple basis of well-being where contact with the earth, and homegrown organic food, would play a large part.

Our third objective was social and ethical. We desired to liberate and dissociate ourselves, as much as possible, from the cruder forms of exploitation: the plunder of the planet; the slavery of man and beast; the slaughter of men in war, and of animals for food.

We were against the accumulation of profit and unearned income by non-producers, and we wanted to make our living with our own hands, yet with time and leisure for avocational pursuits.

Our search for the good life brought us face to face with several immediate questions: Where to live the good fife? How to finance the enterprise? And finally there was the central problem of how to live the good life once we had found the place and the economic means.

Where in the United States should we turn? We decided in favor of the Northeast, for various reasons.

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