I never had the luxury of a mid-life crisis; reality always intervened. It seems to affect men in different ways: a former neighbour of mine in Canberra bought himself a red sports car and a toupée while a certain Austrian wrote "Mein Kampf" and invaded Poland.
Another Austrian left Vienna in 1995 at the age of 39 and moved to the Kingdom of Tonga. I met him there on the tiny island of Lifuka in 2006, and I stayed in contact with him until he had moved to the even tinier island of Uiha and gone completely "native". Since then it's been silence!
As he wrote in his last email to me (loosely translated by me):
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"My 6 x 3.8m 'fale Tonga' is not waterproof but water-resistant and made entirely with local material using traditional methods: the floor is beach sand, the framework coconut palmtree trunks, walls and roof coconut palmtree fronds. The only concession to modernity is the use of 100 iron nails. The 'furniture' consists of a bed, a cupboard and two small tables, all made from old wooden boxes, and a small gas stove. Under the bed is a wooden box which contains my 'power station': a 12V-battery and a 500W inverter which feeds my 10W-12V Halogen light.
Outside, on the northside, is the all-important solar panel. Next to it is a small space to wash and dry my laundry and a few steps along my small workshop which contains tools and fishing gear. To the left is the toilet and outdoor shower. On the westside of the house, next to the entrance door, is my 'kitchen' as I normally cook outside (the gas stove is for rainy days or when it is too windy or to bake bread with)." |
However, even he had to admit that "natürlich sehe ich auch Nachteile in einem 'natürlichen Haus' zu wohnen aber auch damit kann man leben." (of course, there are disadvantages to living in a 'strawhut' but I can put up with them).
Is it really such a disadvantage that he no longer has to fumble for light switches or reach out for a tap, that cold drinks are no longer available, that he can no longer watch the news on television, and is no longer surrounded by all sorts of modern-day gadgets?
Perhaps, like Robinson Crusoe, he now considers what he has gained: "It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy the life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed abominable one that I led all the past part of my days ...
There, but for good wine, Camembert, Pavarotti, private health insurance, stacks of books, and a few million other things, go I.
