Topcat..
Very insteresting to read your post... Amazing as what you described about the rural life, image etc is exactly where I find myself now.... I have just gone through a perfect example of that..
I've been back and forth to France over the past few years, in the middle of no-where..... a beautiful ramshackle farm house with over 40 acres ... (Probably tiny compared to US farms)... which I bought with my other half for next to nothing...
Each time I went there I seemed to just switch off from the outside world, drove the most beaten up old van, the place had a tiny old TV, old fashioned thrown together bathroom, kitchen etc etc, just about everything was the opposite of what I have in the uk.... I worked harder there fixing the place up, keeping chickens, cutting hay etc etc.....the food was great and all from local producers... Though the odd trip to a supermarket was essential..... Physically I was shattered most of the time... But mentally I don't think I have ever been more alert and focused on what life was supposed to be about....My social life was probably the busiest and best it's ever been....
No-one lived like a tramp... I mean, everyone was clean and presentable... but old jeans and t-shirts etc.... rather than designer clothes...A great life just much simplified...
The one decision I made straight away was to stop the meds, cut my hair short and get on with life..... my old plugs did show.... but I did not care and I think people just did not care either.... They were part of me and that was it....
I don't think I've ever been so happy....
But to cut a long story short, it all went wrong....
So, I find myself back in the uk surrounded by what I refer to as the rat race essentials.... I've watched more TV in the past month than I watched in the past year on a big TV, back to microwave meals, driving a big car and even shopping yesterday as I thought I needed to upgrade my home sound system... It's weird as I stopped myself .. looked around and thought about France... suddenly woke up and thought... Why do I need this... So left and came home...
The biggest change is my attitude towards my hair... all of a sudden it's an issue to me... not like it was before... but I'm back on the meds...
Your post above this just sums this up perfectly........
I think we are just programmed by our surroundings..... I am beginning to see this, but am going to keep the meds going.....but had I been there, it would never have bothered me..
I will not go back to France and that life, not for the foreseeable future..... I also have no regrets...but.... I have learnt and can see almost from the outside how this all works .. though I am going to stop eating the microwave crap and get my diet back to what it was while I was away..
Ops... I went on a bit there and have taken this thread off topic.....
Timbo