Rough Living

by Vago Damitio

  Over the past decade, the thing that has been best about this book has been and continues to be hearing from readers. From the waitress who wrote to tell me she kept a copy at work to the young and old guys who have written and told me how it changed their lives. I’ve received hundreds of letters and emails from people who told me that Rough Living was what they needed to read, that my words were what they needed to hear. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Those of you who wrote, your words have often been what I needed to hear and you’ve carried me through some dark nights of the soul with them!

  I’m adding in a couple of things that weren’t in the original Rough Living: Tips and Tales of a Vagabond to this version. All the urban survival tips from the 2005 Rough Living: An Urban Survival Manual are included in this edition and I’ve also inserted the complete booklet I wrote about how to freelance and find your passion income. It makes sense to include it in Rough Living rather than having it on its own. I’ve added in some stories from my original manuscript of 20 Weeks a Bum which fit with the overall time period and theme of this book.

  I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out once again that I dedicated the original of this book (my first book and one I’m still incredibly proud of) to my father who apparently thought I was writing something very different when he promised to purchase a hundred copies and send them out to influential friends. When he read it, he told me I should be ashamed of myself, that I’d ruined the family name, and we stopped speaking. We attempted to patch things up in 2009 but the same thorns came out again. Ten years later, we still have no relationship.

  I refuse to be ashamed of what I’ve done. This is my life. I’ve made mistakes, as we all have. I, however, chose to write about my errors instead of keeping them hidden like skeletons under a closet or dust in a rug. I’ve always felt it better to just say what I’ve done, think, or want in life and that has often put me at odds with people, not just my father, but many others too.

  I’ve grown, I’ve changed, and I’ll continue to do so. A few examples are theft and ‘working the system’. I’ve no interest in either technique these days, but it took me a long time to learn that ‘negative’ ways have ‘negative’ effects on your consciousness. It is my hope that my errors can save you some trial and error. I wish I’d learned some of this stuff without bumping my head and limiting my future.

  I also want to mention the recipes. I’ve included them in the index because I still like them, but over the last decade, I’ve found it funny how many people complained about them on Amazon or other review boards. I’m a pretty decent cook. I’ve actually run some kitchens and I can cook meals that come out delicious 90% of the time from scratch and what is on hand. The point of the recipes is to show you that a few basic ingredients and utensils can give you enough to eat something that would make the judges on Top Chef say “That tastes pretty good.” I’m not trying to make a recipe book, but I think these ones are pretty tasty.

  As I put this together, I’m in Morocco where I’ve been living off and on for the past four years. I came here after getting a degree from the University of Hawaii. I’ve married a Moroccan girl I met, we have a little girl who is going to be two years old this year, and we’ve lived together in Morocco and Turkey these past four years.

  During that time, I’ve not been back to the USA. We are waiting on her immigrant visa to be approved in just a few weeks. By the time this is published, I expect we will be living in the USA. I have no idea how we will do it. I still don’t have a job.

  I’ve written about the past four years in Smooth Living: Beyond the Life of a Vagabond. I may have to write a whole new book about finding a way to live on our own terms in the USA. Tentatively calling it Rough Living: Family Style which probably means that I’m afraid our life of Smooth Living might be coming to a close. We’ll see.

  I wrote the original draft of this book back in 2001- since that time I’ve been to more than 40 countries, sailed a yacht through the Aegean, flown in a hot air balloon over Turkey, and rode camels through the Sahara. If my life is the pudding, the proof of these methods is there. I hope you find what you are looking for. I hope you enjoy these tips and tales of a simple vagabond.

  The past ten years of my life have been better than most people’s vacations — a huge part of the reason for that is because I chose to embrace rough living to grab my freedom. This stuff works — of course, there’s an advanced course too. I’m working on that. Stay tuned at http://www.vagodamitio.com/

  REVISED, EDITED, EXPANDED, AND PUBLISHED IN SEFROU, MOROCCO ON A CRAPPY ACER NOTEBOOK ON THIS 10TH DAY OF MARCH, 2013.

  MEET THE GRASSHOPPER

  What is rough living? Rough living is making do without. Without whatever you might need or want at any given moment. Without food, without money, without shelter, without whatever it is you think you want or need — immediately at hand. Rough living is spending your last dollar without knowing where the next one will come from. Rough living is about finding the rewards from making it any way you can.

  The following is some of what I’ve learned and seen in my career as a vagabond. The book is broken up into two sections. The first section is made up of tips for living the rough life. In the second section are some of the tales of my adventures in 2000 and 2001. I hope the advice is useful and the stories are both inspiring and enjoyable to travelers and armchair adventurers alike.

  This book is not intended for the homeless. It is not directed at street people. It is not a how to manual for people who want to live in public restrooms and beg for change. This is a book for people who don’t fit into the accepted paradigms. Let me illustrate with a well known fable.

  Once upon a time there was an ant and a grasshopper. They both lived in a wonderful place filled with enjoyable activities and fulfilling opportunities. The grasshopper loved to play his fiddle, eat fresh fruit right off the vine, and dance in the moonlight. The ant, however, warned the grasshopper that winter would soon come and that he should follow the example of the ant by preparing for it. Meaning, the grasshopper should forego the simple pleasures in life so that he could prepare for winter. The ant did this. Each day he woke up early, said goodbye to his family, and went to work. He stored up resources for them, so they could live through the winter. In the evening, he came home and went to sleep early so he could wake up in the morning and do it again. The grasshopper couldn’t understand why the ant would do it.

  “Come, play in the moonlight, there’s plenty of food. Worry about winter when winter comes.”

  The ant didn’t listen to the grasshopper, just as the grasshopper didn’t listen to the ant. They spoke different languages.

  The way this story usually ends in the uptight capitalist paradigm of the industrialized world is the winter comes and the ant watches smugly from his warm house stocked with food as the grasshopper freezes and starves to death. I never liked the ant.

  That’s because I’m a grasshopper.

  The ants control the world. They have been trying for a long time to turn all of us grasshoppers into more worker ants. They want us to produce, produce, produce and then consume, consume, consume. They want us to give up our pleasure in life and join them in drudgery so that they can feel they are making the right decision and perhaps enjoy the fruit of our labor. They want us to validate them by joining them, or they want to smugly look on as we freeze and starve to death. I say, nix to them.

  I’ve rewritten the ending of the old fable. Here it is.

  “You better get to work or you’re going to freeze to death this winter,” the ant told the grasshopper, ever so smugly.

  “My life is my work,” the grasshopper said. “You better take a second to enjoy your life or you’re going to keel over prematurely of a coronary. You’ll wake up one morning a very old ant and wonder why you never saw your kids grow into big red ants. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. You better worry about you though.”

  The ant continued working and the grasshopper continued playing his fiddle and dan
cing in the moonlight. In fact, the grasshopper had so much time to practice his fiddling and dancing, that he became a virtuoso!

  When the winter came the ant waited to see the grasshopper freeze or come begging for warmth or food. It didn’t happen. The grasshopper had used his free time to learn where to get food and how to stay warm without the ant’s help. He spent the winter entertaining friends with his fiddle playing and staying warm using creativity. When spring came around, he was just fine.

  So this isn’t a book for beggars. It’s a book for those hardy souls who choose not to be ants. It’s a collection of a few of the things I’ve learned to get through the winter. It’s a book for grasshoppers and ants that want to live like grasshoppers. I hope you enjoy it.

  PROVOCATION

  I like that word. Provocation. A pro is an expert. A vocation is the way we make ends meet in the world. The word vocation is the same as the word vacation except for one letter… Seriously, you have to ask yourself what it is that you want in the world.

  Are you seeking redemptive social change?A new plasma screen television? More time to be with your family? More time to be by yourself? What PROVOKES you to even consider rough living?

  Is it that you want a revolution?Are you into shattering the social structure?

  Unleash your desire. Grab hold of empowerment and listen to a suggestion from yourself. Be honest…what you seek is self determination and freedom.

  Now, let’s take a look at what you have to work with. It’s what we all have to work with. It’s the same for everyone but completely different. Or as they so charmingly say in Asia when languages are not in common… ‘same same but different’.

  I want you to grab a sheet of paper. Divide it into three columns and label each one with following three A’s.

  To get what you want from life you have the three ‘A’s’. Abilities, Accumulations, and Access.

  Abilities. Your abilities are what you can do. Can you build a house, unclog a drain, put up fences, dig ditches, paint, write, draw, garden, accessorize, fix things? What are your abilities. Never mind if you think you can make money with them or if you think they are useful. Your abilities are what you can do.

  Accumulations. This is your stuff. Some people have lots of stuff, some people have no stuff. George Carlin has a funny bit about how a house is just a place to keep your stuff. Stuff can be helpful and it can be a hindrance. More on this later.

  Access. Access is probably the most important thing you can have in our global-society. Did you ever notice that when you watch the credits of movies there are lots of the same names? Maybe you thought, “Wow, that’s coincidental” or “What a talented family!” Don’t kid yourself. That is what access can get you. Access is who you know and where you can go. A library card gives you access to books and computers. A father who is President of the U.S. gives you access to business ventures and politics. Honestly, is there a remote chance in hell George W. Bush would have become president if his father hadn’t provided him with plenty of access? That is what access can get you.

  Write as much as you can under each of the the ‘A’s. Take your time with this. You’re not some ant, are you? You won’t learn to play your fiddle good enough to buy your supper unless you know what you can do with it. That takes time. When you think you are done, hold on to that paper. You’ll find that you can add a lot more to it as time goes on.

  You get the point, right? So let’s get crazy and say I want to have a steak dinner with corn and a big glass of milk. Easy, right? I go to the grocery store, go to the reduced price meat section (more on this later), pick up a steak, an ear of corn, and a pint of milk. Total cost $4.86. Then I go to the park, fire up the barbecue using hardwood sticks to get coals ( you don’t have to use charcoal from the store!) and I make my meal.

  I can almost hear you though. “What if you don’t have the $4.86 to get the groceries?”It’s still easy. You may not get the immediate gratification of a steak dinner, but you can do it. Look at your list and see what you have to work with. Two quick examples should suffice….

  Example 1: I go to the library and post on craigslist.com that I am offering rides from one part of town to another for $5 round trip. (I make sure that it doesn’t cost me too much in gas of course) and wait for my phone to ring.

  Example 2: I make a sign that says “Historic Walking Tours of such and such area”, I go to the library, do a little research into some history of wherever I am living, learn a few facts, and I go to a place where tourists gather (rest area, beach, park, etc) and share a part of my local scene with a visitor. I can either set a fee or wait for tips. If I choose to wait for tips, it’s always a good idea to mention that I am working for free and that I live on my tips.

  In all three cases, it is me, using my abilities, accumulations, and access to get a steak dinner with corn on the cob and a big glass of milk. I’m tempted to go on, but the fact of the matter is, my list is different than your list. Give it a try with your list. How do you get that steak dinner three different ways?

  You want to make sure that you weigh the value of what you seek by the cost of what you desire. For example, it wouldn’t be worth it for me to use $8 in gas to get a $5 meal.

  Aim for the easiest, most convenient, and most fun way to get where you want to go. Instead of saying “I apply for a job, go through a lengthy interview process, get hired, work for two weeks, get my first check, cash it, and then go out for my dinner at Sizzler”, I went with something more convenient , more fun, and more easy.

  Flip your piece of paper over and write down a few things that you want. Leave plenty of room underneath so you can explore different ways to get them. Don’t limit yourself to the physical side of things. There are plenty of other things we all want.

  We all want to be safe, we want to explore, and to experiment.

  How can you do some of that with what you have?

  (Once again, great thanks is owed to Bill Larson of Bellingham, Washington for originating and sharing these incredible ideas with me back in 1999. I’m not sure any of this would have happened without meeting Bill.)

  HITTING THE ROAD

  You’ve felt the call of the road at some point in your existence or you wouldn’t be reading this. It’s called me for as long as I can recall. The call of the road is irresistible and though I’ve tried to fight it, I’m eventually powerless to hold it at bay. I am seduced by the desire to see what lies beyond the bend or over the next ridge.

  Rough living requires little, but a few things make your life a whole lot more enjoyable. The first thing you need to have is a will to live. The sheer desire to survive. The will to live comes in many forms. Curiosity has kept this cat alive through some desperate times. I want to know what is going to happen next and so I’m not willing to die. When the time comes, I’ll see what happens on the other side, but there isn’t any need to rush that particular journey. I have friends who have made it because they love their families. Others live to fulfill some religious devotion. The important thing is to refuse to die. Even when it seems like it would be the easiest course. Absolute refusal.

  If you want to die, you won’t survive a week of rough living. There are far too many ways to end up dead. So, first of all, if you want to learn some of the lessons and experience some of the joys of rough living, you need to want to live. If you have that, the rest is a matter of personal preference. Totally up to the individual.

  I’m almost never without a pocketknife, a source of fire, and my good shoes or boots. Add a blanket, a tarp, and a jacket, and I’ve got nearly everything I need to survive. One other key essential is proper ID. We live in a security conscious world and if you want to avoid hassles with the law you need a passport, driver’s license, and birth certificate to keep you form their grasp. These three pieces of ID are essential.

  Not everyone that reads this book is going to live the way I do. Not everyone wants to. This is a very individual way of living. Here are three examples of very rough living
:

  Cat Lady- She wears taped together garbage bags for a dress. Obviously, she needs help. She has a couple of shopping carts strung together and loaded to overflow with stuff. I was curious and got closer despite the terrible stench that surrounded her. I was amazed to see that this madwoman was carting around ten cats in travel cages. Most of what she carried was cat food and cats. Obviously, she’s a nutter.

  Bag Guy- There’s a crazy homeless guy in Waikiki that carries dozens of plastic shopping bags loaded with all of his possessions. Seriously, this guy has dozens of bags. Why are homeless people so obsessed with having stuff?

  Surf Guy- I’m told that this guy used to be a world class surfer and had an accident that made him loopy. He seems to have a better idea of what is going on than the other two. He has a couple of pairs of board shorts, a duffel bag with some t shirts in it, a rice bowl, and a spoon. Simple and easy.

  What do you need? Do you need cats? Do you need knickknacks? More importantly, since I’m assuming most of us aren’t crazy like the people above, what do you need to have with you?

  As I said, it is a matter of personal preference. Here’s one of my lists:

  The Knife: Everyone has his or her preferred blade. For me it is a medium sized Swiss army knife. Something which fits in my pocket but gives me a can opener, a couple of blades, a leather punch, tweezers, scissors, wine opener, and a screw driver. I have friends who prefer a good utility knife with a serrated edge, locking blade, and thumb lever. For anyone involved in commercial fishing this is the knife of choice. I’ve known a couple of guys who would be dead if they hadn’t of had a one handed opening serrated edge to cut themselves out of tangled lines when they were dragged under while fishing in Alaska and the Arctic.

  Lighter and/or matches: There’s a few ways to light a fire. The easiest is to use matches or a lighter. You can also use your lighter to smoke cigarettes, smoke pot, cut rope, melt plastic, and much more. Fire is too precious not to have available.