Basic Needs

In Costa Rica, needs to choose from can be extremely basic. One can live just thirty minutes from a major town and not have access to telephone. The need for self sufficiency can increase because of rough roads that suffer greatly under persistent rain. Traveling through the back country of Costa Rica requires the willingness to forge creeks, move fallen trees, and perhaps dig in order to continue. It can be thrilling.

We contemplated being very far removed. We toyed with the idea of abandoning the modern world almost completely to go back to nature. As I skimmed the pages of books on Costa Rica, an image of a quaint little farm deep in the jungle captured me. The thought of living with the earth untouched and alive around me was tempting. However, when it came right down to it, we realized that we could not give up contact to the world outside in exchange for a jungle farm.

Others do. Incredibly, they abandon the urban landscape and transplant themselves almost overnight into total seclusion. So many skills must be learned. How many of us could successfully milk a cow? I think very few people could comfortably step outside of the technological world and live off the land. We ourselves learned quickly that happiness included being within arms' reach of modernity, and that Internet service was a basic need right up there with running water and electricity. We are, in truth, addicted to the hands free, wireless world and the culture that has evolved with it .