A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation.
YVON CHOUINARD
A bum is someone who eschews gainful employment and the rewards of that employment which would be an apartment or a house in favor of pursuing their real passions in life. Most of the time, these passions are drugs and drink. But there are those who pursue other passions like surfing, rock climbing, following a jam band on the road, or training for the Olympics. A day job interferes with those pursuits. Unfortunately, you still gotta eat.
I do not care for the bum lifestyle, but I do admire the commitment and the ingenuity that it takes to live this way. It teaches you how little you need to keep body and soul together. My hero on the ways of the bum lifestyle is billionaire Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. Chouinard prefers the term "dirtbag" instead of being called a bum, but a dirtbag is still a bum to me. If you're eating cat food to save on groceries, you're a bum.
A bum is simply someone who chooses freedom and independence over gainful employment. The bum wants to live in a way that is in contradiction to the wider society. They reason that time is more valuable than money. They choose to live an endless vacation enjoying their pleasures while normal folks have to "earn" their two weeks of paid vacation each year.
Personally, I love working. I'd rather work than surf or climb mountains. I am wired differently than most folks who work for the sake of some other end. I enjoy work for the work itself. Getting paid is the bonus. As for vacation, I was prone to selling the time back to the company. I am not a vacation and leisure sort of guy.
My current frustrations with TBI took away what I loved doing. I didn't want this for my life, but I have had to accept it. I work within the limits of the invisible injury focusing on chores and errands that I need to get done to keep my life functioning. TBI is not a vacation but a prison sentence.
I am a frugal person which is why I take notes from those bums. You don't need a lot of money in order to survive. Those frugal tactics help keep me off the street. I live like a bum to keep from becoming a bum. This is the essence of voluntary poverty. It prevents involuntary poverty.
This forced vacation would be a great opportunity before my TBI. TBI took that away. I do less now than I used to do in the free time I had outside of work. I have learned that the most valuable thing is not money or time but energy. I have the time to learn how to surf now. I don't have the energy. The same goes for mountain climbing or writing the great American novel. There is no longer gas in the tank for those activities.
The real secret of Yvon Chouinard and his mastery of living was his energy. We all choose where to put our energy. Chouinard chose the outdoors and his business ventures. As someone with diminished energy, I choose mere survival. Bums are good at surviving. I will never climb a mountain like Chouinard, but I may end up eating cat food.
***********
Patagonia's founder, who gave his company to a non-profit, loves saving money. From eating cat food to living in beach shacks, here are some of the wackiest examples.
