Message From The Editor of Off-Grid News

I love reading in all forms, whether it is books, magazine articles, news columns, or even the back of my shampoo bottle. I also love classic poetry, which happened to be what I was reading yesterday.

One poem I stopped to ponder on was John Donne's "Meditation XVII." It's most famous for its line that reads, "No man is an island." I'm sure you've seen where I've shared this quote with you before, discussing how even the most self-sufficient off-the-gridder still needs community. People are, after all, designed to live and work together.

I'd almost forgotten though, that another famous quote comes from this work. You've probably also heard it: "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." But what does it mean?

In the 1600s, when the author lived, church bells were tolled whenever anyone died. If you lived in a small town and heard the church bells ringing during the day, you would often go up to the church to find out who the recently deceased was. Donne's point was that it didn't matter who had died--every one depends on one another, so even one member of society dying is like losing a part of yourself. It's a stark reminder of our own mortality.

So what does this have to do with off-the-grid living? Perhaps this realization is limited to my own winding thoughts, but I couldn't help but think of liberty as I read about the tolling bells. Maybe it is because we so associate our country with things such as the Liberty Bell. And much like the lives lost in Donne's meditation, whenever freedom of any kind is lost--whether it affects us directly or not--the loss is sorely felt. Maybe certain laws that are in the making won't directly affect you. But they do affect someone. They do take away someone's liberty. And when their freedom is affected, so is yours.

Our own Declaration of Independence connects the ideas of life and liberty when it says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And so I come to this final thought--just like Donne says the loss of even one human life changes us all, the loss of one single liberty affects us all as well. Whether or not you see the value in freedom of speech, or the right to bear arms, or the right to privacy in your home, those rights are important and affect us all. We must truly be "one Nation indivisible" by maintaining "liberty and justice for all."

The Editor
editor@offthegridnews.com