The Other

The Radical Alterity has given me a lot to think about. The "other" takes so many forms and seems to represent romantic ideals, esoteric knowledge, and a higher plane of functioning. The text is sometimes difficult to fully grasp, but the examples ring true, and the discussion of Japan's treatment of the other really grabbed me. I was reminded of the Dharma Bums, Alan Watts, and my own fascination with "eastern" culture, which is truly the most seductive "other". Somehow I was also brought to a new understanding of the alure of farming, the other great romantic force in my life.

My mother is from a large farm family, but I was brought up in the suburbs. For my entire life I have wished to return to the simple life of a farmer. To hunt and slaughter, to draw sustenance from the environment, and to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life". It was encouraged by "Into the Wild" and I gave this dream validity when I moved to Washington after high school. I committed a year to the "other" when I studied friluftsliv (free air living) in Norway. Now I am to be married and how appropriate would it be if we do actually move to northern Norway and find our place between the fjords and mountains, raising chickens and making cheese. Tomatoes and spinach grown in my own garden, wool spun from our sheep, this is my other, this is what drives me to abandon what I know, and will captivate me until it is a reality.

But then what?