It is not every day that we get to read about people who have done things that none of us can even think of doing. But, today is going to be that day for anyone who decides to read further.
We are talking about this man, who consciously chose to walk away from money in the year 2000. Daniel Suelo gave up all his life’s savings- $30 and walked into a life where he would not use money at all. He went to live in the wilderness of the American Southwest and made the desert of Moab, Utah his home.
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Leaving the $30 he had, in a phone booth, Seulo just left off, to live a life close to nature in the autumn of 2000. Not only that; he actually even changed his legal name from Shellabarger, to Suelo, which means ‘soil’, in Spanish and also threw away his driving license and passport. He pays no taxes and doesn’t take any of the food stamps or government dole.
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After leaving the civilization as we all know it, Suelo lived in the outdoors and caves, camped in the wilderness, stayed in different communes and used to spend nights in stranger’s homes. For many years, he lived in a cave which was around 200 feet wide and 50 feet tall on the edge of the cliff at the Arches National Park of Utah. He actually carved a bed from the rock and used to drink from the springs, foraged for food and bathed in a creek.
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Most of his food basically included wild onions and mulberries, road-killed squirrels and raccoons, expired groceries and meals cooked by friends and strangers. Take a look at the things that he used while living in the cave.
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Any hiker, who would come to that cave, was free to use anything he had. He says that they were allowed to rest there, eat whatever he had and read his books because that is how he has been living ever since he started to really live.
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Mark Sundeen had known Suelo for more than 20 years before Suelo left the civilization. Sundeen got to know about it all a few years after Suelo had moved to the desert and his initial reaction was that his friend had gone mad. But after the Economic Crisis of 2008, Sundeen felt that maybe Suelo had a point.
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Sundeen says that our financial system is so huge that we can’t control it and in many ways we all are enslaved by it. Worse than that is the fact that we all feel powerless to make a change. He further added that in Suelo, we have that man who may not know the solution to the problem but he has decided to disobey the entire system.
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In the year 2009, Sundeen started to write Suelo’s Biography. Titled, ‘The Man Who Quit Money,’ it has been written by closely following Suelo’s lifestyle.
It is very clear that Suelo doesn’t consider money to be having any value. But listening to his thoughts about this world is interesting, to say the least. According to Suelo, our whole society is designed so that we all have to have money. One has to be a part of the Capitalist system; so much so that it’s illegal to actually live outside of it.
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On his blog it is clearly written, “'I don't use or accept money or conscious barter.” He says that his philosophy is to only use what is freely available and discarded and that what is already present. The most important part of it all is that his basic goal in life is to take less and give more.
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One of his friends, Damian Nash told The Atlantic that Suelo wants to have the smallest ecological footprint, apart from bringing the largest possible impact at improving things in this world.
After having lived in nature for almost 15 years, Suelo returned to civilization in the spring of 2015 to care for his aging parents in Fruita, Colorado. His father left this world in February 2016 and Suelo only has his mother. He takes care of her mother’s finances, pays her bills and shops for her. But, for himself; he still doesn’t take any money from the government or elsewhere for that matter.
He says that he still feels as passionately as ever about a moneyless world and would actually love to return to it. But, just so that he doesn’t lose sight of the real world, he has set up camp at a river nearby.
To know more about Suelo, watch this video.
The American Who Quit Money To Live In A Cave from David Eckenrode on Vimeo.
What do you have to say about the way Suelo has been living his life? Do tell us in the comments section below.