Leonard Carr of the South African news organization Times Live examines the connection between your level of self reliance and how you interact with your environment. He decides that the “Truly noble tidy up their mess“:

Servitude occurs when you live in a state of lack. The consequent need that arises from what you lack makes you dependent on the help of others. This puts you in an inferior position to those upon whom you depend. Freedom, on the other hand, is characterised by self-sufficiency, self-respect and self-reliance. In short, it is the independence to, among other things, look after yourself and take care of your own needs.

If have often felt similarly. I worked on the housekeeping staff for a department store to put myself through college, and while a certain amount of mess can be expected from even the most considerate people, there were some messes we would find that could only have been intentional–someone who either felt themselves too important to take care of their own messes, or someone who got some sort of thrill out of making others take care of it for them. I can only feel for those people. Someday they are going to be in a situation where no one else will or can take care of them, and they simply won’t know how to cope.

On the other hand, I have seen some of the most high-ranking people in various organizations go to unusual lengths to tidy up after themselves. It speaks volumes, not only about how they view themselves, but how they view others. Those are the people who truly deserve the positions they have risen to. Those are the people most worth paying attention to in matters of importance.

I hope I never rise so high in life that I ever forget what it was like to clean hand prints off of glass partitions. And should I ever stoop to low as to purposely smudge a freshly cleaned window I hope the janitorial gods strike me dead on the spot. I will have ceased to provide any true value in the world.

In my recent research into self reliance I have begun coming across uses of the phrase “self reliance” in a negative connotation. These are almost always in reference to religion, and usually describing a person’s relationship with God. In this case the self reliant person is trusting in their own strength and abilities and not in God.

This is not to pick on religion or anti-religion. This is simply to clarify something. When I refer to self reliance in this blog it is not in that sense. Self reliance, as far as this site is concerned, simply refers to ones state of preparedness and ability to subsist with minimal charitable assistance from others.

However, I will state here also that I am a religious person. I believe that God wants us to be self reliant in the sense I have discussed and, to quote a common phrase, that “God helps those who help themselves.” We rely on God, and we acknowledge our reliance on him, but we minimize the extent to which we are beholden to other people. Owing too much to others limits our ability to fully explore our relationship with God. Or, to refer to another common quote, “No man can serve two masters.”

Now, having clarified that, I don’t intend to get overly religious on this site. I want to include as many people as I can, and you don’t do that by purposely picking fights. If self reliance is your interest I really don’t care if it’s because of religion, environmental concerns, thrift, doomsday-ism, or because the voice in your freezer that normally says “Zuul” is encouraging you. If you have something to add, please do. If you find something of value here, wonderful!

Nor will I exclude religion. Religion, especially my own, often has a lot to add to the discussion of self reliance. If it’s appropriate to the discussion I won’t shy away from it. I think we can all be respectful of each others’ beliefs and still discuss our own when we have something to add. I think we can learn from one another.

That’s what this site is all about.

Self reliance manifests itself in various ways. Here’s an article by Bill Kirby in The Augusta Chronicle about reclaiming a bit of his spirit of self reliance:

It prompted the faintest of grins because it caused me to remember: I fixed a pump motor the day before — the highlight of my week. 

I cannot fully explain why it gave me such satisfaction, such a feeling of achievement, but it did.

Like many of you, I went to college and got a degree and began a career so I wouldn’t have to fix my own stuff. I could pay someone else to do it while I wore a suit and a tie and focused on more cerebral, creative tasks. 

But in making that choice I lost something. 

I missed out on some sort of American reliance on figuring things out, on fixing what’s broken. 

Since I became a homeowner I’ve discovered that I really do enjoy a good fix it/build it project. There’s a definite feeling of satisfaction in a job well done. Even if you’d never do it for a living, it’s somehow comforting and ennobling to know that you know how do something. And to be able to point to the proof. I’ve felt that way about many things, from the playhouse I built for my kids to the carpet edging around the fireplace I repaired. There’s always that moment when you step back to inspect your work and think to yourself, “Go, me!”

Self reliance is as much a journey as a destination, I believe. Many who take the journey do so with a certain amount of self-bemusement and self-deprecation. We realize, after all, that many people probably think we’re a bit crazy for making the choices we do.

I picked up that familiar tone in a blog I discovered this weekend; 12 Acres and a Dog. The first sentence of the first post on the page gave it away:

It’s time for my wife and I to reveal our inner crazy. Since we purchased our 12 acre piece of earth, we have been planning and dreaming of building our country home. Even before we found our land, I had begun researching building techniques and floor plans.

Incidentally, I don’t think they’re crazy at all–which may make me similarly crazy. I do look forward to reading more, however.

Here’s an interesting article about Victory Gardens during WWII and what happened afterward.

Following the cessation of the war, mass interest in home gardening as a national duty, as well as government support, dried up almost instantly. The post-war shift in agriculture from small and local to large-scale, monoculture meant the increased use of chemical pesticides, shrinking of varieties and genetic modification. Henry Ford was on to something when he proclaimed: “No unemployment insurance can be compared to an alliance between man and a plot of land.” But following WWII, gardening was relegated to a quaint hobby.

Self Reliance Exchange has posted a series of articles on low profile living, or living so as not to attract notice from others. I saw similar articles there a few days ago but initially thought they were being just a bit too paranoid. The more I think about it, though, it’s not so crazy. There is a fine line to be considered these days between trusting people too much and shutting oneself off from society. Everyone needs to draw their own line, but there are still ways to take as few risks as possible of letting too many people know too much about you.

Read the above articles and decide for yourself. It’s worth pondering.

Chronogram magazine has an interesting article about the resurgence in people living more off their land. Their reasons, as expected, are varied, but most report an interest in getting back to their roots. There is certainly a hint of Thoreau to the whole article:

Since buying their three-acre Stone Ridge property 11 years ago, visual artists Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano have turned it into an oasis worthy of a photo spread in Horticulture magazine. They’ve planted a host of fruit trees and other edibles, including exotics like ginseng and Siberian kiwi. They’ve put in a cranberry bog, a lotus garden, and even (cue the music from Little Shop of Horrors) a bog for carnivorous plants. They tap their maple trees and raise chickens. They make teas and soda from sassafras and wintergreen and forage throughout the seasons for ramps, wild asparagus, berries, and more.

Tired just thinking about it? Then you’re not Levy or Serrano. They recently purchased eight acres across the road with the goal of planting a diversity of nut trees there. Pecans, almonds, Korean pine.

So what’s with the two artists? Are they, like the trees they’re planting, nuts? No. There’s a fine line between passion and compulsion, and Levy and Serrano are treading it with palpable delight. This isn’t a hobby they’re pursuing, and it’s not a shallow and disposable “lifestyle,” either. What Levy and Serrano are doing runs deep. “Sometimes this seems overwhelming,” says Serrano. “But when you’re really passionate about something, as we are about our land, it doesn’t feel like work.”