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Simplicity That Side of Complexity: An Open Letter to Visitors at Forest Farm

by John Saltmarsh

Welcome.

You are encouraged to go slowly, to explore your connection to the Nearing legacy through the wonder of this place. Pause often and breathe deeply. Ask yourself what difference this visit will make in your life.

Forest Farm, at some level, brings you in relationship with Scott and Helen Nearing, perhaps the most genuine, authentic, and influential examples of simple, sustainable living in the 20th century. Scott, who died at the age of 100 in 1983, and Helen, who died at the age of 91 in 1995. Scott and Helen, you might say, had a history.

Scott was an economist who was fired from two universities, once for his view on child labor, the other for his antiwar politics. He was a prolific writer and thinker and activist, an advocate for the poor (writing Poverty and Riches in 1916), for the rights of African Americans (writing Black America in 1928), and he was an ardent pacifist and antiwar activist (writing antiwar pamphlets and books - and I’m referring to wars as far back as WWI). Scott and Helen went back to the land and to a simple life to live out the principles of non-exploitation at the core of their politics. Scott and Helen were exemplars of environmentally sound, sustainable living. Their Living the Good Life, written in 1954, became a best-seller in the early 1970s as the bible of the back-to-the-land movement.

By their example, hundred of thousands of people across the globe have had the opportunity to learn from their lives and to be inspired to change their own way of being in the world. Tens of thousands, like you, have made the trek to the Nearing homestead.

What the Nearings created here at Forest Farm represents only a small part of their lives. By the time they settled into this homestead, they had spent decades working out the answers to the questions of what they believed and how they wanted to live, so that the way they lived their lives was remarkably consistent with their values. By the time they created this, the last of their homesteads, the Nearings had arrived, so to speak; they had made their long journey, somewhat deceptively, all look so easy.

As you look around, I’d like to suggest to you, to gently remind you, that what you see is the end result of long struggle - so I want to encourage you, even implore you, to look deeper, to look at the creation - or as Scott put it in his autobiography The Making of a Radical - look at the making that is disclosed in every aspect of the homestead - see the making, not just the end result.

In the making is an alternative version of American history, as the Nearings believed fervently that our history is not predetermined, but instead created by active, engaged citizens exercising the rights and responsibilities of their political inheritance. It was a history not to be written by wealthy capitalists who would subvert democracy, lead us to war, exploit workers, subordinate the rights of women, discriminate against minorities and immigrants, desecrate the environment, and impoverish the hope of a better America. There was another history that would be written through struggle, determination, and commitment - beginning with the citizen as creator of American democracy, producer of public good, maker of a common wealth - the Nearings were making a history that resisted the role assigned to citizens as consumers of politics, spectators to democracy. They lived and created - they were part of the making - of a history that required deep engagement. As Terry Tempest Williams has written recently,

Democracy depends on engagement, a firsthand accounting of what one sees, what one feels, and what one thinks, followed by the artful practice of expressing the truth of our times through our own talents, gifts, and vocations. Our future is guaranteed only by the degree of our personal involvement and commitment. In the open space of democracy, we engage the qualities of inquiry, intuition, and love as we become a dynamic citizenry, unafraid to exercise our shared knowledge and power.

Through their engagement, the Nearings acted out the making of history that was an America of sustainable life practices, environmental integrity, and an economics of justice that would allow the human and non-human community to thrive. They made a history that fostered peace and cooperation, justice and inclusion, hope and promise.

This is what Forest Farm captures and illuminates. This is not a place of idyllic living close to the land. Look deeper. This is a history we can all profit from, offering an alternative narrative of the past to shape our present and future. This place compels us to act – it tells us that we, too, can make our history - in fact that we must. The Nearings demand this of us. And ask anyone who knew them, the Nearings were demanding.

This place demands, too, that we straighten out our notions of simplicity. Simplicity at Forest Farm is enormously complex. What we see is deeply intentional and deliberate planning, experimentation, patience, perseverance, and excruciating consciousness - consciousness of the results of one’s actions on others, on the environment, on the local community, and on the wider globe.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said of simplicity: “For simplicity this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give a fig; for simplicity that side of complexity, I would give my life.”

Simplicity this side of complexity is something akin to lifestyle simplicity, a fashionable motif of simplicity as conscientious consumption - not reducing consumption, but continuing to consume in discriminating ways. On this side of complexity, simplicity is but another consumer good, something acquired to remake one’s identity, a form of conspicuous consumption. Simplicity is consumed to shape a lifestyle that is inherently therapeutic, individualistic, and apolitical. This side of complexity, simplicity is disengaged, privatized, and lacking in the possibility of transformation.

Yet on that side of complexity, where you find the Nearings, is a deeply political, deeply engaged version of simplicity that brings social justice to the forefront, allowing a life of simplicity to be the entry point to a life of “self respect and integrity,” as Scott put it. That side of complexity is what Wendell Berry writes of when he says:

If one disagrees with the nomadism and violence of our society, then one is obligated to take up some permanent dwelling place and cultivate the possibility of peace and harmlessness in it. If one deplores the destructiveness and wastefulness of the economy, then one is under obligation to live as far out on the margins of the economy as one is able: to be as economically independent of exploitive industries, to learn to need less, to waste less, to make things last, to give up meaningless luxuries...If one feels endangered by meaninglessness, then one is under an obligation to refuse meaningless pleasures and to resist meaningless work, and to give up the moral comfort and the excuses of the mentality of specialization.

It was “that side of complexity” that the Nearings wrote of when they explained that “the value of doing something does not lie in the ease or difficulty, the probability or improbability of its achievement, but in the vision, the plan, the determination and perseverance, the effort and the struggle that go into the effort, rather than by acquisition and accumulation.” “We were seeking an affirmation,” they wrote in Living the Good Life, “a way of conducting ourselves, of looking at the world and taking part in its activities that would provide at least a minimum of those values we considered essential to the good life.”

The simplicity that the Nearings lived - the simplicity you see around you at Forest Farm - the kind of simplicity Berry describes - it is simplicity on that side of complexity - and it requires giving all of one’s life. For simplicity this side of complexity, the Nearing wouldn’t have expended on ounce of energy - For simplicity that side of complexity they dedicated their lives.

Finally, we should avoid believing, as much as we are prone to do, that the serene and peaceful aura of this place implies that living a simple, deliberate, purposeful life of integrity is easy. Do not be misled that the Nearings will help you find the easy way to straighten out your life. The Nearings’ journey, as is any journey worth its salt, was enormously difficult, an often wrenching and determined struggle. Roger Baldwin, a close friend of Scott, wrote of him in the early 1930s in this way: “Among the strong lines of a face weather beaten and tanned by much outdoor living are the lines of conflict, even suffering.” The Nearings reminded those who looked to them as examples that “The good life is never stable, never secure, never ending, and never ended.”

So take from your visit the important lessons from the Nearings, that you can learn from their lives but that you must undertake your own journey, and it will be and should be different from that of the Nearings. It can be a journey in which you struggle in your own way to live out your values and find a way to give your life to simplicity, and to create a different, honorable, hopeful America that is a history worth making.

John Saltmarsh is the author of Scott Nearing: The Making of a Homesteader (Chelsea Green, 1991).

Table of Contents | The Good Life Center | Contact The Best We're Doing

The Best We're Doing : A Journal of The Good Life Center
Vol. 1 No.1 October 2005
Table of Contents GLC Home	Simplicity That Side of Complexity: An Open Letter to Visitors at Forest Farm by John Saltmarsh Welcome. You are encouraged to go slowly, to explore your connection to the Nearing legacy through the wonder of this place. Pause often and breathe deeply. Ask yourself what difference this visit will make in your life. Forest Farm, at some level, brings you in relationship with Scott and Helen Nearing, perhaps the most genuine, authentic, and influential examples of simple, sustainable living in the 20th century. Scott, who died at the age of 100 in 1983, and Helen, who died at the age of 91 in 1995. Scott and Helen, you might say, had a history. Scott was an economist who was fired from two universities, once for his view on child labor, the other for his antiwar politics. He was a prolific writer and thinker and activist, an advocate for the poor (writing Poverty and Riches in 1916), for the rights of African Americans (writing Black America in 1928), and he was an ardent pacifist and antiwar activist (writing antiwar pamphlets and books - and I’m referring to wars as far back as WWI). Scott and Helen went back to the land and to a simple life to live out the principles of non-exploitation at the core of their politics. Scott and Helen were exemplars of environmentally sound, sustainable living. Their Living the Good Life, written in 1954, became a best-seller in the early 1970s as the bible of the back-to-the-land movement. By their example, hundred of thousands of people across the globe have had the opportunity to learn from their lives and to be inspired to change their own way of being in the world. Tens of thousands, like you, have made the trek to the Nearing homestead. What the Nearings created here at Forest Farm represents only a small part of their lives. By the time they settled into this homestead, they had spent decades working out the answers to the questions of what they believed and how they wanted to live, so that the way they lived their lives was remarkably consistent with their values. By the time they created this, the last of their homesteads, the Nearings had arrived, so to speak; they had made their long journey, somewhat deceptively, all look so easy. As you look around, I’d like to suggest to you, to gently remind you, that what you see is the end result of long struggle - so I want to encourage you, even implore you, to look deeper, to look at the creation - or as Scott put it in his autobiography The Making of a Radical - look at the making that is disclosed in every aspect of the homestead - see the making, not just the end result. In the making is an alternative version of American history, as the Nearings believed fervently that our history is not predetermined, but instead created by active, engaged citizens exercising the rights and responsibilities of their political inheritance. It was a history not to be written by wealthy capitalists who would subvert democracy, lead us to war, exploit workers, subordinate the rights of women, discriminate against minorities and immigrants, desecrate the environment, and impoverish the hope of a better America. There was another history that would be written through struggle, determination, and commitment - beginning with the citizen as creator of American democracy, producer of public good, maker of a common wealth - the Nearings were making a history that resisted the role assigned to citizens as consumers of politics, spectators to democracy. They lived and created - they were part of the making - of a history that required deep engagement. As Terry Tempest Williams has written recently, Democracy depends on engagement, a firsthand accounting of what one sees, what one feels, and what one thinks, followed by the artful practice of expressing the truth of our times through our own talents, gifts, and vocations. Our future is guaranteed only by the degree of our personal involvement and commitment. In the open space of democracy, we engage the qualities of inquiry, intuition, and love as we become a dynamic citizenry, unafraid to exercise our shared knowledge and power. Through their engagement, the Nearings acted out the making of history that was an America of sustainable life practices, environmental integrity, and an economics of justice that would allow the human and non-human community to thrive. They made a history that fostered peace and cooperation, justice and inclusion, hope and promise. This is what Forest Farm captures and illuminates. This is not a place of idyllic living close to the land. Look deeper. This is a history we can all profit from, offering an alternative narrative of the past to shape our present and future. This place compels us to act – it tells us that we, too, can make our history - in fact that we must. The Nearings demand this of us. And ask anyone who knew them, the Nearings were demanding. This place demands, too, that we straighten out our notions of simplicity. Simplicity at Forest Farm is enormously complex. What we see is deeply intentional and deliberate planning, experimentation, patience, perseverance, and excruciating consciousness - consciousness of the results of one’s actions on others, on the environment, on the local community, and on the wider globe. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said of simplicity: “For simplicity this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give a fig; for simplicity that side of complexity, I would give my life.” Simplicity this side of complexity is something akin to lifestyle simplicity, a fashionable motif of simplicity as conscientious consumption - not reducing consumption, but continuing to consume in discriminating ways. On this side of complexity, simplicity is but another consumer good, something acquired to remake one’s identity, a form of conspicuous consumption. Simplicity is consumed to shape a lifestyle that is inherently therapeutic, individualistic, and apolitical. This side of complexity, simplicity is disengaged, privatized, and lacking in the possibility of transformation. Yet on that side of complexity, where you find the Nearings, is a deeply political, deeply engaged version of simplicity that brings social justice to the forefront, allowing a life of simplicity to be the entry point to a life of “self respect and integrity,” as Scott put it. That side of complexity is what Wendell Berry writes of when he says: If one disagrees with the nomadism and violence of our society, then one is obligated to take up some permanent dwelling place and cultivate the possibility of peace and harmlessness in it. If one deplores the destructiveness and wastefulness of the economy, then one is under obligation to live as far out on the margins of the economy as one is able: to be as economically independent of exploitive industries, to learn to need less, to waste less, to make things last, to give up meaningless luxuries...If one feels endangered by meaninglessness, then one is under an obligation to refuse meaningless pleasures and to resist meaningless work, and to give up the moral comfort and the excuses of the mentality of specialization. It was “that side of complexity” that the Nearings wrote of when they explained that “the value of doing something does not lie in the ease or difficulty, the probability or improbability of its achievement, but in the vision, the plan, the determination and perseverance, the effort and the struggle that go into the effort, rather than by acquisition and accumulation.” “We were seeking an affirmation,” they wrote in Living the Good Life, “a way of conducting ourselves, of looking at the world and taking part in its activities that would provide at least a minimum of those values we considered essential to the good life.” The simplicity that the Nearings lived - the simplicity you see around you at Forest Farm - the kind of simplicity Berry describes - it is simplicity on that side of complexity - and it requires giving all of one’s life. For simplicity this side of complexity, the Nearing wouldn’t have expended on ounce of energy - For simplicity that side of complexity they dedicated their lives. Finally, we should avoid believing, as much as we are prone to do, that the serene and peaceful aura of this place implies that living a simple, deliberate, purposeful life of integrity is easy. Do not be misled that the Nearings will help you find the easy way to straighten out your life. The Nearings’ journey, as is any journey worth its salt, was enormously difficult, an often wrenching and determined struggle. Roger Baldwin, a close friend of Scott, wrote of him in the early 1930s in this way: “Among the strong lines of a face weather beaten and tanned by much outdoor living are the lines of conflict, even suffering.” The Nearings reminded those who looked to them as examples that “The good life is never stable, never secure, never ending, and never ended.” So take from your visit the important lessons from the Nearings, that you can learn from their lives but that you must undertake your own journey, and it will be and should be different from that of the Nearings. It can be a journey in which you struggle in your own way to live out your values and find a way to give your life to simplicity, and to create a different, honorable, hopeful America that is a history worth making. John Saltmarsh is the author of Scott Nearing: The Making of a Homesteader (Chelsea Green, 1991). Table of Contents \| The Good Life Center \| Contact The Best We're Doing All material copyright The Good Life Center.