Define your alternative self

[doofaloofa]

[benny hill music]more than an handfull's a waste Mrs[/benny hill music]

[KathyLauren]

(Some of my alternativism touches on areas of restricted discussion. I mention those areas only to answer the question, not to raise them as points of discussion.)

I have always been a hippy at heart. I have worn my hair long, in a ponytail, for years, and have had a beard for 30 years. I only shaved it off for a few years when I had to wear an air mask in the fire department, but now that I don't do that any more, I've grown it back.

I have been a Buddhist for many years. The group I was a member of for a while had their retreat centre on the site of the old Greenpeace Experimental Farm. The original Greenpeace geodesic domes are (mostly) still standing. I thought that was pretty cool and very appropriate. I would love to build a gazebo using the original Greenpeace plans for a truncated icosahedron.

I am an environmentalist, and I take the scientific view of global warming rather than the corporate one. I have always been on the left side of the political spectrum. (In this country, that is not only alternative, it's considered subversive. They're probably after me already! )

My wife and I are both vegan. We grow quite a few of our own veggies. What we don't grow ourselves, we get from subscription to a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) organic farm. When we buy grocery store food, our preference is for organic.

When we were on the west coast, we used to collect rainwater for irrigating the garden. We could collect enough in two days in November (4500 gallons) to see us through the following summer. We installed a solar hot water system on the roof. We used to walk to the store or to community meetings or concerts more often than we drove.

[Flo]

Ah I thought a real genuine alternative might appear. Hello Keith, you are the sort of person I consider alternative.

[happyhippy]

Hmm Maybe I am using the wrong word "Alternative"in the UK?(I'm an aussie btw!)Alternative in Australia usually means a hippy type,which I definately am!I'm now 53 yrs old,but got drawn into the hippy life when I was 20.For me,its being more independant.I like to think of myself more a shepherd than a sheep!lol For me,its about finding ways of doing stuff yourself and not being so reliant on other people.We grow our own food,are car free,are buddhists,non materialistic,support good causes,and try and live as natural a life as possible. We do both work full time (Something I am about to change very soon,possible move back to Oz,buy a place out bush and work as little as possible to we can truly live a self sufficient life).I used to dress very alternatively.but found that since moving to the UK,its pretty much frowned upon unless you're at a festival!

[ina]

I dare say that most people in the UK would consider somebody like me who manages to live without fridge and TV as definitely alternative... Oh, and no smart phone, either. ;)

Yeah, there are various degrees of alternativism. I'd like to be more so, but have to be pragmatic. I have to live, i.e. survive, and for that you need a certain amount of money, and for that you have to work - and for that you have to conform to a certain extent!

[happyhippy]

Yes thats true Ina.I also work (not really by choice,but because I have to).

[RunnerBean]

I don't know how alternative I am, but I'd like to be self-sufficientish because I'm not a people person and more time spent (alone) growing our own food is less time spent having to go to a shop and talk to actual real life people.

[littlemissrose]

Well I had my punkfase in highschool where I wore a gold glitter double spiked mohawk. I love hardrock. And I have never followed fashion or wore make-up. As long as it feels comfy I will wear it. (I have seen pictures of my ten year old self performing with my violin in pink sweatpants). I have searched a lot in religion. Eventually I desided nothing fit me and formed my own values.

These days though I wouldn't really see myself as alternative. I do have all the mod cons and I like them and need them to keep my life a little bit organised. I have been having mental issues since my youth and the things I have trouble with are concentration and organisation (maybe it's aspergers waiting to be tested) which caused depressions, obsessions, burn-outs and a social fobia and destroyed my career.

Besides that the only things that make me alternative are my drive to do everything myself, to make everything from scratch and take things as far back to the basics as I can. But as much as I would love to be able to do that I fail to have the organisation skills needed. For example my garden on my balcony has never delivered me the bounty of veg it could have because I forget to maintain it. Still I can make my own clothes. Life comes with a lot of ups and downs. But I keep trying and maybe one day I'll get it right...

[Susie]

I don't like being in situations where 'I need' someone else to do something for me.

I can't stand people telling me what to do!

Oh me too OJ. I must be a real treat to work with :-(

[dustydave]

Alternative is a funny word, alternative for many is the 'real' and the reality of their existence that defines what and who they are. I get your meaning though.;-) I tend to do my own thing, though in doing so i've learnt to discern what i see and what i do not, like make my experience determine my perspective, sort of gets like i see myself as 'normal' and then start talking to neighbours or work contacts and suddenly realise that when you start talking in a multidimensional sense then you get some really odd looks, or even that your existence in the room starts to become offensive to them. Hard work. Seems easier just to tone it down accept the odd look rather than actually unfurling wings (metaphorically speaking ). A good example is that i do a lot of walking around the village and a neighbour questioned me about why i am always walking, my reply that i like to connect with nature/spirit that way sort of phased him out, next time he asked again and i said it was because i've got a bad back and the doctor told me to... the look of relief on his face -that he now had a 'normallised' answer to his question. One day we'll up and leave for some place a little easier to fit in to, but for now life flows and children grow.

[Flo]

You'd get no odd looks here dustydave as alternatives do live here in that we have a "green group" that meets in one of the pubs.

[dustydave]

^That sounds like a nice scene you've got there. Maybe one day i'll head up there. It is interesting that certain parts of the country have a history of being more small holder orientated and laid back about farming. Around here farms average around 2000 acres and there are only a few smaller plots that ever come up for sale and when they do the surrounding landowners hoover them up to add to their own, just to make sure no one 'alternative' moves in . I don't mind it, it sort of makes the countryside empty, other than commuter houses and my walk to my smallholding is about 4-miles. Between here and there i walk past about 15 houses and despite walking past those houses twice a day for the past 2 years i couldn't say i've ever seen anyone come or go, just the occasional red-eyed tense faced suited person rushing from front door to car and then reeving away up their drive to go to wherever they go.

[Uller]

Doesn't alternative just mean anyone living a lifestyle that is different from (or an alternative to) the norm?

I wouldn't consider myself to be 'alternative' really, just living life the way I want to, but I most of my colleagues from my past corporate life thought I was a raging hippy and that was before I gave up my job, travelled for 18 months, became vegan and moved to rural Portugal. They wouldn't know what to do with me now, my life is so far beyond their view of what is normal, even though I think I am a very normal person. It's all relative I guess - we have friends here who have lived off grid with outdoor privy & no bathroom for 8 years, smoke tons of weed, meditate etc and I consider them to be pretty alternative.

[dustydave]

yep, we get to shape our own existence. Sounds like you are doing well by yours. I've often toyed with the idea of creating a map that links physical places i assess by limit and discern to be what feels right. It would very quickly become a multidimensional map with the physical reality of place super imposed with the flow of emotional attachment to people and place and then super imposed again with place and route that connects with spirit. A constantly ebbing and flowing map that moves and changes with season and whim. If google were clever enough ( and i'm glad it isn't) it could feed in those features and predict in time/ space and place where self should be.

A friend of mine lives part of the year in the Pyrenees and has a few weed smoking neighbours; they literally drove down there in the late 60's lit up and have sat staring into the middle distance ever since. There are plenty of worse things that they could be doing, lol.

[Puddleduck]

I've been doing protest marches since I could walk!! The joys of having socialist parents! My father was a miner so I have been at pretty much every march from 1984 onwards, then student rallys, then supporting firemen, teachers, etc. Don't do it so much these days, got 2 little'uns to run after, but recently joined a well known environmental group so maybe once again!!

Some of the other parents at the school my daughter goes to think I'm weird because (get this!) I make baby food for my 7 month old rather than buying unspecified flavour goop! And that I'm a granny because I can knit and sew!! Good job they don't know about the veggie plot or they might write me off altogether!!!!