The Return Journey From an Escape

This Guardian article isn’t up to much (and kinda looks like someone pulling strings to promote their crime novel) but it illustrates the point than an escape, even one that fails or is temporary by design, is never a waste.

The writer and his partner left London for an eco-village in Spain. They subsisted on harvested fruit and solar energy, drank cheap wine, wrote books, and basked in the sun. After six years, they returned to London to pursue journalism work. Fair enough.

I often think about the return journey from an escape. Maybe your decision to become the new Yeti isn’t sustainable, or wasn’t meant to be, or you end up needing to slouch back to society for company or medical care. Maybe you just get tired of paradise and want to come back to the hustle and bustle. My great escapes have not been from cities but from jobs. Occasionally I’ve taken jobs again though, either through necessity (fail!) or by choice (freedom).

When you come back from an escape, you might think about the chorus of nay-sayers, real or imaginary, who said you could never do it, that you could never survive on dumpster-dived fried chicken alone.

But whether they were right or wrong, at least you tried. At least you had an adventure, lived up to your ideals for a while, will have fewer deathbed regrets. And, importantly, you’ll have collected new skills that will always be useful, spiritually and practically:

While living in Los Molinos, we learned how to make cheap, nutritious vegetarian dishes. We coped without central heating, and survived the harsh winter nights […] When the sun didn’t shine we had so little electricity that sometimes we’d have to read by candlelight. As the cost of living continues to rise, I’ll be able to draw on these experiences. I like to think we brought a little bit of Spain back with us.

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Curious about escape versus the status quo? Try my books, I’m Out and The Good Life for Wage Slaves.