States of America

- How long does anybody have to be anywhere before it's considered home?

Most people you talk to, they weren't from here originally.

I had a friend, and he invited me over here to visit.

I came and visited and ended up staying.

It's like one of those classic Moab stories.

The idea of living moneyless is to live without being conscious of credit and debt.

Were always thinking what can I get, if I do this.

Or I'm gonna do this for this person because this person did something for me.

It's out of a sense of obligation and debt, instead of I'm gonna do something for this person because I love this person and this feels good.

Or this person is in need or I'm gonna take something freely without guilt because I need it, without racking up this accounting chart in my head.

This fall it will be 9 years, since I gave up money.

I kind of had it in the back of my mind since I was a kid to live this way and sometimes I think kids feel that way, but it gets pushed in the back of our minds.

I think that's the in-advantage of doing this later in life because it's something that I thought out a lot, mulled over.

It's not a, not so much a flight of fancy, like it would've been I think.

I went to University of Colorado, got a degree in anthropology and pre-med, I was thinking of becoming a doctor and the Peace Corp. was a part of that experiment.

I was a health volunteer.

When I was working at homeless shelters and also I work as a case worker, I kept feeling like, what's really the difference between this and prostitution.

Your told in social work, your not to have personal relations with clients after work, like after 5 o'clock and I'm not your friend anymore.

Some days I felt like the only reason I'm here is, I have to be and I'm getting a paycheck.

I worked at homeless shelters and I kept thinking of what a fine line that was between me and homeless people and the idea of becoming homeless terrified me.

And then I sat down and analyzed it one day and thought well what is it about homelessness that terrifies me.

It's not the hardships, not physical hardship, because I like going out and camping.

I like the challenges of that.

And it boiled down to, it's worrying about what people think and the stigma.

I felt like if I can overcome that, I could overcome anything.

I kept thinking of ways of getting up the nerve to live completely without money and it took me a couple years, but I finally did it.

In 2000, I decided that I would hit the road and I visited different potential communities.

I had like 50 dollars in my pocket as a backup.

But I kept having this feeling like, I must be nuts living this way and I only have 50 dollars in my pocket and I'm out in the middle of nowhere and I don't have a house and away from most people I know and I just kept thinking.

Why do I have this gnawing anxiety?

I have this 50 dollars, least I can fall back on that and then when I stopped thought about it, I thought well no, the 50 dollars is the problem, it's the idea that I have that to fall back on and that's what's keeping me in anxiety.

So I decided to get rid of it.

Right when I did, it was just like this feeling of acceleration like warm water pouring over my head.

Just like this total warmth and comfort and that's when I had this blissful feeling, like I'm at home and everywhere I am I'm at home.

I can go anywhere and do anything.

Course I feel like a Utahn now.

I think anybody who's just completely content living here is a Utahn.

How long does anybody have to be anywhere before it's considered home?

If our families been here for generations, in the grander scale it's just a vapor.

You know, how long do European descendants have to be here before their considered natives?

That's also the point of this lifestyle is what is home and is realizing the impermanence of life.

I think wherever we are that's who we are, that's home.