Freegan? Steward?

I heard the term freegan for the first time this weekend and decided that I would find out if it was a made-for-the-moment term or if it was a well used and defined term. As I have learned it is a term that seems to have been in use for at least the past 5 years.

So what is a freegan? The word itself is a bit of a play on the word vegan. And like veganism, freeganism relates to a style of eating as part of a larger philosophy of life. At http://freegan.info/ they define themselves as :
Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.
From this definition I think many would be hard pressed to find fault with their philosophy. However, it is more likely the methods that they use to achieve this that has many fingers wagging and heads shaking. Although I think that the principles that their way of life are based on could help each of us live more consiously and responsibly. They list their principles of living as: Waste Reclamation, Waste Reduction, Eco-friendly Transportation, Rent-free Housing, Going Green, Working Less/Voluntary Joblessness. Not that I am espousing that we all become squatters, give up our cars and quit our jobs; but that we consider the resources that we put into what we do and what we own. In this consideration, I wonder if we would find that we could improve our quality of life by having more time for the things that matter...the people in our lives.

Now I must confess that although I find the posibility of this kind of lifestyle appealing on some levels; as a mother would have a hard time enforcing such a stringent and challenging lifestyle on my children. In some ways, I think we already push the limits of what parents can expect children to bear up under and not be resentful about. In fact, as R read over my shoulder last night, she declared that she does not want to try to live like that. Fair enough...she is entitled to begin to think about life independant of how I think about life...on the other hand there are principles to a more simple lifestyle that I want to embrace and pass on to my children.

This brings me to an interesting conversation I had with my Dad last night...it was so great we got phone calls yesterday form both sides of the family and I got to talk with both B's Mom as well as my Mom and Dad, my youngest brother, his girlfriend and my cousin...

Anyway, my Dad was ribbing my about a post...of course, he was riling me up by not telling me which one he was referring to...anyway, it got me thinking, which of course, was what he wanted to make me do...here I am putting my unadulterated thoughts on display for anyone to read...what kind of responsibility do I have to those who read?

Then it hit me this morning...like exploring the idea of a freegan lifestyle and what it would mean to me and then what impact would it have to those around me...the thoughts I post are things that I would like to interact with people about...and for whatever reason I don't have people present here to explore some of these things with...

So I will re-issue my invitation to anyone who reads my blog...please tell me if you think that I am being offensive, heretical, insulting, unrealistic, illogical or maybe verging on insane...

So returning to my initial subject... What do you think about a freegan lifestyle? Wikipedia says that it involves these activities: foraging(commonly called dumpster diving or skipping), wild foraging(as in foraging growing or gathering what is growing in your community), squatting, sharing of resources (like freecycle and freestores), ridesharing, community gardens, bicycle programs.

I was trying to think today of ways to incorporate some of the principles of freegan philosophy into the life that we live. I think that the most appealing thing for me is to live avoiding, as much as I am able, exploiting resources, whether those resources are things, animals or people. For a long time now I have been weighing in my mind what it means to be a steward of the world around me...maybe some of this will move me towards being a better steward of what I have been given.