A return to simple living

In a recent editorial of Mr. John DelRosario posits a point about the CNMI’s dismal economy and his assessment of what is to be expected in year 2014 about our cost of living staying stagnant, if not getting worse. Perhaps it is time to revisit the crystal ball anew on this troubling but critical expectation about life in the NMI. Is “subsistence economy” now more plausible than the promise of the “cash economy” that we keep searching without real capital and resources native to the NMI? If the people of the NMI do not define and know what level of contentment in life and lifestyle is good for them, then we will never find what is at the end of the rainbow, even with all the pseudo promises of the global economy that we seem to worship as our cash cow and panacea for all our woes and worries.

First of all, we all need to search and capture the free service of nature. Simplicity and contentment in life is the first step. Take for example the use of a cardboard box and a discarded mirror, from which one could cook a meal in the hot sun like what we have here. Placing a cow’s feet in a pot with water in a solar stove box would cook in about 2 hours when the sun’s heat is captured at a perfect angle. Imagine cooking during a hot day between 11am and 1pm of the day. The flesh of the cow’s feet would peel from the bone like a drip of tempura batter.

Vegetables when overcooked are not at their best nutritious condition. It is better to eat vegetable in its raw nature. The added benefit is that you do not have to resort to burning any cooking fuel or twisting the lever of a stove to heat the vegetable. For instance, I eat eskabeche raw, no fish. The process is simple, I chop all the vegetable of the eskabeche, add a tablespoon of freshly chopped turmeric, include in the mix one or two leaves of aloe vera, add 5,000 mg of vitamin C crystal powder, some slices of available local fruit in season for sweetness, and, if lucky and available, some freshly squeezed orange or tangerine make a tasty treat or any fruit of some sort, and maybe pouring in a half-cup of water for smoothness, then turn on the blender or food processor, and voila, a meal that would sustain you for the whole day and it is 100-percent natural and good for you.

If this lifestyle is simple enough and a base of life contentment, would this be something that people who have less would consider by turning to nature as nature provides for all living things? This is a lifestyle alternative, and would be worthwhile to consider by those wishing to make a difference by making changes to their ordinary lifestyle, starting in 2014. It would be good for all to start the discourse on alternative living in light of our limited resources and the idiosyncrasy of island-style standard of living on these islands. Green living is not a bad idea and it is equal to nature.