PP #29: Three Life Changing Questions

Project: Pioneer #29, April 15, 2024 Monday 6pm

Photo by Serrah Galos on Unsplash

We get so caught up in the day-to-day routine, we often miss the chance to pause and take a wider view, a view from above, to take stock and put our one precious life in perspective. The three questions I’ll pose later in this journal post will certainly cause you to do that. Please don’t miss them!

Project: Pioneer is the live weekly reality journal of a couple and their small dog as they leave their ‘normal’ life in a luxury apartment for a new semi-off grid life in a small recreational vehicle, just at the start of winter. We cover prepping, politics, spirituality, afterlife, RV life, and personal finance. Most posts are free, more personal posts are to reward our loyal paid subscribers. Audio podcast at Substack, Apple, and Spotify)

In this journal post:

• Our Current Status and Updates

• Three Life Changing Questions

• Exodus, Stage Right

• The Taxman Cometh

• What’s Next?

Current Status/Updates

No Sunday post, whaaaat? Yeah, it’s been a…week. Overloaded mentally and physically with the prep work to move to the new woodlands site on Thursday, last-minute tax fire drill, etc. More on the taxes later.

We spent the weekend shuttling our deck boxes and their contents down to the new site, reorganizing and optimizing along the way. It was good to hit our small storage unit and dig out our various beach and outdoor gear. It’s beginning to feel a lot like…summer. Today was another beautiful day, and on the way to a grocery run I saw a young couple drive by, windows down, passenger bare feet out the window, toes wiggling in the warm breeze, tunes cranked. The girls (and boys) in their summer clothes, as quoted in the great Springsteen song. We’re so ready!

Mother Nature has been hard at work as well, filling in the landscapes with watercolor hues of spring. Cherry blossom and other flowering trees have awoken and stretch to the sky after their long slumber, green and white buds appear on the trees, brush-strokes filling in the mountain behind us in this paint-by-number-dream.

Likewise, Giavana has finally shed her layers of winter bulky attire, and my pretty Italian/French/Brazilian damsel is finally showing some skin on our nice walks together with Pia. Those two girls don’t like the cold, nor do I. Ready the lobbying for somewhere warmer next winter!

Our community has come alive. Everyone has been outside, reversing the fall drill of skirting, only this time removing the winter foamboard with joy and anticipation, chatting and helping one another in this spring pioneer RV life chore. We all survived.

Two days left until we move, and we’re psyched! After Thursday, two big stressful items will be off our plate, with the only remaining ones selling the business and that other matter I write about in the paid posts. Two down, two to go, and summer is upon us. We got dis, yo!

Three Life Changing Questions

I talk about the afterlife quite a bit. There was another good article in the Guardian recently. I believe in that—it’s the only thing that makes sense, after a lifetime of trying to figure out hard questions like, “Why is there so much tragedy, suffering, and temptation? Where is God?” If you listen to the stories of those who have had afterlife near-death experiences, you hear the clear answers to those questions. It all fits together.

However, while we’re here, we should make the most of it, right? One exercise that helps me put things in perspective are the Kinder questions. They were created by George Kinder, a Certified Financial Planner and founder of the Kinder Institute.  His website is Life Planning for You, check it out after reading this journal.

Here are the three Kinder questions. Take your time, answer them honestly, maybe in a heart-to-heart with our beloved spouse or partner. Read and answer them one at a time for the best effect.

1. I want you to imagine that you are financially secure, that you have enough money to take care of your needs, now and in the future. The question is, how would you live your life? What would you do with the money? Would you change anything? Let yourself go. Don’t hold back your dreams. Describe a life that is complete, that is richly yours. Answer this before moving to question 2.

2. This time, you visit your doctor who tells you that you have five to ten years left to live. The good part is that you won’t ever feel sick. The bad news is that you will have no notice of the moment of your death. What will you do in the time you have remaining to live? Will you change your life, and how will you do it? Answer this before moving to question 3.

3. This time, your doctor shocks you with the news that you have only one day left to live. Notice what feelings arise as you confront your very real mortality. Ask yourself: What dreams will be left unfulfilled? What do I wish I had finished or had been? What do I wish I had done?

If you take the time to truly visualize yourself in those scenarios, it can and should be a profound exercise. Take stock, make changes! Life is short. No one gets out alive. That’s the point behind the new song by rising star Maggie Rose. We saw her at a festival last summer and were blown away. Let’s use her and that on-point song and lyrics for our musical break! Take a break and enjoy.

Call the boy
Ask the girl
Have no regrets
When you leave this world
'Cause you know
No one gets out alive

—Maggie Rose

Exodus, Stage Right

What irony: Racist Trump hates immigrants so much he actually triggers the great exodus from these wonderful United States. Always watch what the wealthy do, they're way ahead of the game. They know what's coming, and they’re preparing their exit. We sold our crap and live in an RV (that’s what Project: Pioneer is all about!). We're ready to go at a moment’s notice. Start your process, just in case. Have a plan. Prepare.

Do you have grandparents on either side of your marriage that were born in another country? You may be eligible for dual citizenship and a second passport. If you’ve done the ancestry.com or 23andme.com it might not be that hard to figure out. Maybe you can’t afford the kind of survival bunkers that folks like Musk and Zuckerberg are building, but this much may be do-able.

The Taxman Cometh

On the tax issue, we got it done today, so not a day late but certainly many dollars short. It’s really upsetting to see those numbers and think about how Trump paid $750 a year in federal tax for the few years we did see his returns, despite a huge income and being a “billionaire.” Same with the big corporations and other billionaires that just don’t pay anything. Mark Cuban is one of the only honest ones.

The cycle continues—wealthy people bribe politicians and Supreme Court justices for wealthy people tax breaks, then pay no taxes. “That’s for the little people,” it’s been heard said. And some folks want to put the Rs back in control, while they promise yet another tax break for the rich? Good Lord. It’s just sick how unnecessarily complex our tax system is, but that’s how you hide all the loopholes, right?

What’s Next?

We’ll report back next weekend with news on our new location, as well as some pics for all! Don’t forget, commenting is now turned on for everyone on these free posts. Let’s interact! Too many of you reply to us personally, share the love with the Project: Pioneer community :-)

The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity.

The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.

—Bertrand Russell

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