The Simple Life

Vermont....What comes to mind when you think of Vermont? Maple syrup? Sure, there's a lot of it. Perhaps cows? They likely out-number people. Cheese? It's darn good! Ben and Jerry's? Absolutely if you have an imagine of Vermont that is more than a 1950's postcard.

When I always thought of Vermont, I thought of the fiercely independent yet community driven people. Need medical marijuana? Sure, it's your business what you smoke. Leave your house naked because you don't feel like putting clothes on that day? Vermont doesn't have laws against nudity. Want to get yourself a civil union? Have at--it's your right as an individual. Now I don't want you to get the idea that Vermonters are a bunch of crazy liberals. This is what I initially thought and what drew me to the state! Rather, Vermonters fiercely believe in the rights of the individual as long as it doesn't bother their neighbors too much. It is a state with  distinctive personality and distinctive politics.

I came here looking for elusive "simple life." I've lived in Florida the past few years and had grown tired of the traffic, endless strip malls and big box stores (though I will always have a special place in my heart for Target). I had hit a rut in my personal and professional life and needed change....and Vermont for me has always been a Shangrala of sorts. I took day trip to the state shortly after graduating from college and filled my head with green mountains, endless trees, and calmness that seems lacking elsewhere. I put a "Got Vermont?" sticker on my car after the trip.

As I started to tell my friends in Florida and elsewhere of what the "simple life" has begun to mean--no cell service, no TV reception, "mobile" DMV's--they kept saying "You need to write a blog!" So cliche as it is, I'm writing a blog. My hope is to spend the next year ethnographically studying Vermont and chasing down the simple life. I hope my post are entertaining, occasionally informative, and ever so often meaningful. Enjoy!