From the Outdoors, In

In my heart of hearts, I like to pretend that I’m outdoorsy. Given, this little fantasy is often negated whenever I find myself screaming like a sissy at the sight of a spider, but a girl can have flights of fancy, right?

Well, good.

Because in my imagination, I constantly ramble through the great outdoors, kind of Paul Bunyan-style (only with less flannel…and no axe). See, in theory, I’m all for nature and livin’ off the land, but in actuality, I hate mosquitoes, and have a generalized paranoia about being attacked/maimed/eaten by a bear.

Not to mention, my non-existent hunter-gatherer skills mean that, quite frankly, if I were ever left to my own devices in the middle of nowhere, I’d probably starve to death.

So, as a means of vicariously roughing it (and for my own self-preservation), I’ve taken to reading a slew of books about cabin-dwellers, the horn-tooters of sustainability, and folks committed to living off the grid.

All-in-all, Walden Pond type stuff. 

First in the lineup is Twelve by Twelve, by William Powers.

A writer and activist, Powers spent several years doing aid work in such far-flung places as Africa and South America, working to protect the environment and bolster impoverished regions. But, upon his return to the States in 2007, Powers experienced a Sisyphus-esque brush with reality: for all of the effort he was putting in to save the environment, destructive lifestyles across the globe were mucking up the cogs.

And, while global degeneration battered him from one side, personal crises and disillusionment left Powers thirsting for an elemental change in his life.

Enter Dr. Jackie Benton, who, although having the potential to earn six figures as a physician, accepts only a fraction of her salary and spends her days in a tiny cabin in rural North Carolina. After a trip to see Benton in her "Eden", Powers finds himself continuously pondering the nature of existence, and how it's possible for humans and nature to coexist harmoniously. So, when Benton invites Powers to stay in her cabin while she travels, it is an opportunity for him to not only withdraw from the world, it is also a means for him to rediscover his place in it.

Situated on the banks of the appropriately monikered No Name Creek, the 12-foot by 12-foot cabin, which lacks plumbing and electricity, is everything that Powers has been searching for: small, semi-isolated, sustainable. In this, his temporary Mecca of self-discovery, Powers gets to know Benton's colorful cast of neighbors: organic farmers, bio-fuelers, artisans and permaculturists. It is these neighbors, whose ability and commitment to living with purpose, inspire Powers and show him that there is beauty and grace in humanity, if only we are willing to live lives of intention, rather than consumption.

Twelve by Twelve is one of those books that deserves a slow, meandering read, as you'll find yourself thinking about its message, and mentally turning over its philosophies, days after you finish it. And while it's worth noting that Twelve by Twelve is more a memoir than an instruction manual for cabin-life and living off the grid, it almost doesn't matter: Powers' experiences reveal that a simpler life, with a smaller footprint, is not only possible for all of us to achieve, but the art of living "in harmony with each other and nature" has the potential to be infinitely fulfilling.

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If fulfillment in the form of small-scale living is what you're looking for, read on for two books that'll get novice cabin-lovers started on the road to downsizing in a super-sized world.

Compact Cabins, by Gerald Rowan is kind of like the eHarmony of cabin books. Dedicated to structures that are "1,000 square feet or less," the first half of the book is a no-nonsense line-up of 50 cabin designs, complete with exterior sketches, and landscaping tips; the entire point being to help readers easily find one (or a few) designs that catch their eye, before they take the leap into exclusivity with The One design for them.

The latter portion of the book assumes that readers have, or are on their way into, a committed relationship with a cabin design, and covers the nitty gritty of building materials, cabin-friendly utilities and appliances, as well as modular designs and energy systems that'll take a cabin off-the-grid.

As a whole, Compact Cabins is short on the fluff but heavy on all of the facts, designs and details readers need to build a happily ever after with the perfect cabin.

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Remember that episode of Seinfeld, where Kramer gets the brilliant idea to write a coffee table book about coffee tables?* Well, if instead, he'd decided to write a book about cabins for cabin-lovers, Cabinology by Dale Mulfinger, might well have been the fruit of Kramer's irrefutable genius.

The book's layout is as laidback as the lifestyle it touts. With a "where-what-how approach," Mulfinger ensures that even the most thoroughgoing chapter-skimmers among us will pick up delightful anecdotes and bits of useful information along the way.

Chock-full of photographs of all sorts of real-life cabin floorplans and designs, as well as easy-to-read information about finding/buying land, and considerations of every detail from plumbing to furnishings, Cabinology is an essential book for the serious (or potential) cabinist.

Think of it as one part cabin-centered travelogue, one part how-to manual, and one part unabashed love letter to the life of leisure.

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While my own cabin in the woods is probably still a few decades (and wilderness survival classes) away, I think my cabin-centric literary exploration has whetted my appetite for life lived deliberately, while, at the same time, firmly grounding me in reality. Turns out, even my dream cabin is subject to zoning laws, and, yep, even fantasy cabins need a waste disposal system.

But at the end of the day, I suppose the joy of enjoying cabins--be they real or imagined--is fulfillment, enough. So, until the cabin of my heart, becomes a cabin under construction, I'll please myself with vicarious vacations.

And, of course, you're all welcome to join me.

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*If that Seinfeld reference went over your head, please click here, and then, here. You can thank me later.

Naming names

Imagine, for a moment, that you're a young girl. A girl living in the Ancient Near East; the only girl born into a family of a dozen sons. A family with four mothers (two of whom also happen to be sisters).

Your father is a distant, mysterious man whose word is law in this, your patriarchal society. Take a step further and imagine that your father is Jacob, the father of the House of Israel, and his sons will spawn the lineage of God's chosen people.

But you, the girl-child, are an afterthought and your story, your remarkable story, will be forgotten in the shadow of this religion-building. Your father and his sons will play vital roles in the Bible, yet your words will never be written, and never be read.

Now…imagine that your name is Dinah.

In the Jewish tradition, re-tellings of Biblical tales are called midrashim, and at its most basic definition, that is what The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant is: a re-working of the story of Dinah, the only named daughter of Jacob who, in the few Bible chapters in which she appears, is a cursory character, even when she plays a central role in a bloody conflict.

The Red Tent is an evocative epitaph of Dinah’s life. Written in the first-person, this character-driven novel is slow-paced but full of nuance. With deliciously atmospheric story-telling, Diamant transports readers to the ancient societies that fill the Bible; allows us to step inside the red tent, a place strictly reserved for women, a place where they retreat during their menstrual cycles—a place of mystery and uncertainty from the male-oriented perspectives of the Bible, but a place where Dinah begins her journey toward womanhood.

Through Dinah's eyes, discover the strength and resilience of the feminine in a male-dominated society, and follow her as she finds her calling as a midwife, only to experience a heart-breaking tragedy that leads her away from her father and his sons, into a new life in ancient Egypt.

This is not a book about the Bible or the familiar cast of characters who populate its pages; this is a book about the forgotten, the downtrodden, the overlooked and the abandoned. Conversely, it is about self-worth and identity, and about reviving, and naming, Dinah.

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In the all-important social strata of high school, Emi-Lou Kaya, the narrator of Name Me Nobody, by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, falls "somewhere right below the band geeks, and right above the zeroes."  Raised by her grandmother, Emi suffers from a common teenage ailment: self-disgust. But her disgust isn't the mild variety; it goes beyond skin-deep; all the way down to her blood, to her bones, to the layer of excess fat that blankets her body--and lies in the unshakable fact that she looks just like her promiscuous, got-pregnant-at-sixteen-years-old mother. 

Only fatter.

But it’s not just her weight that makes Emi feel worthless; at school, she’s endlessly harassed by the popular girls, and is hopelessly in love with quintessentially jerky jock, Kyle, who only talks to her when he wants her to do his homework.

The one person who accepts and loves Emi for who she is, is her tomboy best friend Von, whom Emi relies on to fight her battles for her. So, when Emi is publicly humiliated, Von is the one who starts shoplifting diet pills and diuretics, and puts Emi on a tough weight loss plan; and, by the time their freshman year of high school begins, a thin, pretty Emi has replaced “Emi-fat.”

But while Emi is searching for herself amid this new world of boys, make-up, and size seven jeans, she becomes uncomfortably aware that Von already seems to know who, and what, she is—because Von has been spending more and more time with a girl named Babes, and rumors are flying that Von and her new friend are a lot more than friends.

In the fight to get Von back, Emi must decide what secrets to keep, and which to reveal, and how to handle a world that always seems to be rearranging itself. But the more she tries to hold on, the more Emi finds herself losing Von—and herself—as backstabbing and secret-spilling become an uncomfortable part of her new life.

In the end, Emi must decide if this new-and-improved version of herself is really who she wants to be. And, when all is said and done--without Von, and without her fat--who is Emi-Lou, really?