Back to Horse and Buggy

Horses are not cheap animals to care for. You have to pay for shoeing, saddling, food, equipment for exercising, and maintenance... and yet, with all this nonsense of raised fuel prices making it nearly impossible to find a plane ticket for under $400 and costing just as much to drive half the distance you used to be able to for the same prices... *breath*... maybe I should invest.

I miss the olden (olden, as in golden?) days where things were simple. Families lived close to one another. We were able to provide for ourselves through our own gardens, clothe ourselves without worrying which brand our dresses, and jeans, and shoes were. Men worked at home, taking pride in their land and their own work - instead of paying everyone to do things they should have learned when they were still young. Women worked in the home, supporting their husbands and having babies. Wait, how can I miss these days, when I never actually lived them? Well, I miss the idea of them, anyway. Honestly, I think the feminist movement really ruined things for me... but that's a topic for a different post.

Whether I lived them or not, one thing is for sure. If I don't get home now - as in move home, closer to my family - then I may NEVER get back. It's getting just too expensive to travel. Why can't we pay $5 train passes to travel across the country? How much did it cost to sail over the Atlantic to go to Europe? I would really love to go there, but now that it is getting SO expensive to travel, I sometimes wonder how I am going to afford getting to Clearfield (a 1 1/2 hour drive, and about half a tank) or Boise (a 4-5 hour drive, and a whole tank of gas) let alone across the oceans!

I am grateful for technology and advancements...really. I like the computer. I love typing and blogs and emailing and searching the vast knowledge of the web. I like how quickly news travels whether its between members of my family, or members of the world. Cell phones are awesome. They are so nice to multi-task. To be walking through the grocery store and talk to my mom who is 2,000 miles away, is the BEST thing ever. And let's be frank for a minute - the technology that allows us to have tampons instead of rags, birth control pills instead of crazy, out-of-control, periods is SUPER nice. Along with the amazing advancements in medicine, and education, SOME of the fashion, make-up, etc. etc. etc. I know we are blessed. I know that technology has done a lot to advance us as a people, a society, and the Church. How cool is it that we can listen to prophets teach us from Salt Lake or BYU or where ever, at the very time they are speaking? It's amazing! But, I think, I would give up some of these luxuries to go back to a simpler, cleaner (as in less pollution...and less acceptance of pornography and other vulgar things that have recently - well, not SO recently - been accepted into society) and more appealing lifestyle.

Anyone with me?

Probably not... I'm not a leader in the movement to simplicity - but if anyone is interested, I'd definitely be a follower! (Oh, but can we NOT go to the FLDS church style dresses? We can still be ATTRACTIVE simpletons.)