Ben Hewitt made his name writing paeans to rural food systems and the iconoclasts who create them. Now, in ($25), Hewitt covers his efforts to step away from the American financial machine, with the help of a 28-year-old wilderness-skills tutor named Erik Gillard, who survives on a four-digit income, lives in a handmade shack, and wears 鈥淢cEnroe-era tennis shoes,鈥 Hewitt writes. 颅Occasionally, Gillard is heavier on platitudes than depth, but he鈥檚 a fun guy, and so is Hewitt.
国产吃瓜黑料: When did you realize Erik might be onto something?
HEWITT: One thing that 颅interested me was his enviable lifestyle. He surrounds himself with people and things he loves. He has time for his friends. There are a lot of potlucks, a lot of singing.
How does he get away with it?
He found ways to meet his needs outside the money system. He doesn鈥檛 earn enough to pay taxes.
Your title is Saved. Was there a moment when you felt saved by Erik?
I can鈥檛 point to an epiphany, but processing my experiences has been transformative. Erik is the most innately generous person I鈥檝e ever met. We went mushrooming for morels. Now, mushroomers are generally a secretive lot, but Erik took me to the best spots. To him these are things to be shared. When you get stuff for free or because of the abundance of nature, it鈥檚 such a rush. Who doesn鈥檛 like being able to forage a meal? That鈥檚 free food!
You now barter beef and 颅chickens with your neighbors and try to source your meals from the wilderness. Any tips for those of us who might not live in the sticks?
I highly recommend dumpster 颅diving at colleges the day after the semester ends. Wear gloves. The amount of stuff frat boys throw away is unbelievable.
Do you ever think you might be romanticizing Erik?
I do, but I try not to let him off the hook and to look at some of his contradictions. I鈥檝e been privy to enough of his personal quandaries to see that his contentment is real. More than anyone I鈥檝e met, he鈥檚 in control of his time.
You refer to the financial system as the 鈥渦nconscious economy,鈥 but you must hope some never quit it.
I need people to consume enough to buy my books or I鈥檓 screwed.