Garden and Gold

The most remote inhabited place on earth is the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. Located in the south Atlantic Ocean, it lies around 2,800 kilometers away from the nearest land. The approximately 270 residents share only 8 surnames to date. With only around 80 families, this island is financially self-supporting. This place is visited only once a year by a mail ship, occasionally by a cruise ship, and about 6 times a year by trawlers.

Now, I have this idea of trying to live there with someone I call my partner. Live there like Adam and Eve. Venture the land, feel the breeze, explore the sea in the morning. Lie on the grass, gaze at the stars, sleep by the tree in the evening. Eat what the nature offers you. Wash clothes in the river, bathe in the sea, do extra siestas and live free.

I come to think now that there are many things in my life that I do not entirely need. I just need food, clothes, and shelter like what my elementary teacher taught me. Everything else comes as either entertainment, amenity or luxury. Paying for the land? Payment for a house? A fee for a ride? Protection from who-knows-what and when-comes-what? Paying for meat, fruits, and vegetables? A peso for a chance to reply to a stranger? A subscription for an unseen signal to chat, communicate, and see people across the globe? A big chunk of money to relearn what the past has learned? Another big chunk of money to try learning what the past hasn't yet? How about a pillow when you sleep? A different set of outfit for every occasion? A daily or weekly drama, game show, action, suspense, you-name-it on television? Everything else... just a demand of the society, the civilization, and the government.

I do not discredit the comfort and the pleasure our world and technology give today. Curiosity and advancement are just two of the catalysts to today's people's definition of contentment and fun.

I'd like to try living a different life. A life not demanded nor dictated, not even pre-judged, by the current mindset of world civilization. A life not too tribal yet not too advanced. A life not complicated by the dictate of any ideology. A life of just living and being one with nature. Besides, in the end, we will all be part of nature.



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