#scott nearing

[shihlun]

Hong Sang-soo

- On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate

2002

[gregorygalloway]

Scott Nearing (6 August 1883 – 24 August 1983)

[cinematic-literature]

Labor Day (2013) by Jason Reitman

Book title: Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World (1973) by Helen and Scott Nearing

[baddreamland]

“Homesteaders Helen and Scott Nearing, from their book Living the Good Life”.

℅ Epidote Press

[gregorygalloway]

Scott Nearing (6 August 1883 – 24 August 1983)

[veryslowreader]

Living the Good Life by Helen Nearing and Scott Nearing

Labor Day

[livingislife]

Freedom is the transition from one life task to another. A chance to choose a new task.

Scott Nearing

[39adamstrand]

Scott Nearing (August 6, 1883 – August 24, 1983) was an educator, political activist, pacifist, and writer.  

Nearing spent his long life working to solve labor issues, simple living, and peace.  He was indicted in 1918 for alleged “obstruction to the recruitment and enlistment service of the United States” during World War I, interfering with the war recruitment through his writings and lectures.  At his trial, Nearing defended himself, saying,  “The only way to have intelligent public opinion is to have discussion, and the moment you check discussion you destroy democracy.“

He was found not guilty.

Nearing lived in rural Vermont and lived a largely self-reliant life, growing much of his own food, and earning money from lectures and his self-published writing.  In 1954, he published Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World, co-authored by his wife.

Interviewed in 1981 he said "I look forward to the possibility of living until I’m 99. It is a precarious outlook, I assure you. With age, your facility of expression and perception diminishes. I have almost nothing left but time. But if I can be of service, I would like to go on living.”

Scott Nearing lived to be 100, and at that time decided that he had done enough.  He stopped eating. “Animals know when to stop,” he said. “They go off in a corner and leave off food.”

According to his wife Helen, she agreed with his decision. “We were quiet together; no interruptions, no doctors or hospitals. I said ‘It’s alright, Scott. Go right along. You’ve lived a good life and are finished with things here. Go on and up – up into the light. We love you and let you go. It’s alright.’”