Could I Live the Simple Life?

In response to the story I posted yesterday, a sharp and inquisitive friend of mine responded by asking me whether or not I could be content living the life of a simple fisherman? My response became prolific before long and now I share it with you:

"Do I think I could be content with the simple life of a fisherman? I think not, but I think this may be because I have already been corrupted, in a way. I don't use that word, corrupted, to necessarily mean anything evil. What I mean is that human kind, when raised closely with the land, will develop a deep and profound sense that you are a part of the land. In my project this summer I have interviewed a great number of people who are living this life. I am interviewing anybody who is involved in agriculture here on Mo'orea; from the government subsidized large scale "modern" farmer, all the way down to small groups and individuals who live in the valleys, without income, subsisting off the land and the sea. It is in these subsistence farmers that I see and feel this closeness with their environment. For them, the modern world holds no sway over their imaginations. Remember in "Ishi" when the anthropologists bring him to San Francisco? Ishi is unamazed, stating that the earth has built larger mountains than the buildings he sees before him. For myself, I feel I am somewhere in between. Alone in nature, I feel all that hippy peaceful stuff, but there is more. I feel alert and alive. I feel like a hunter; my body electrified and my senses keen. In these moments I know that I am tapping into that connection with the land that the farmers of the valley feel every moment of everyday. Alas, the feeling is fleeting, and it is difficult to conjure when I am 3 floors below the earth in the middle of the night, studying for midterms, in a room lit by florescent lighting. In these moments I am a perfectly modern man and I know that my connection with the land has indeed been corrupted. So to answer your question from a slightly different angle: I think that, only those people who's connection to the land has not been corrupted can thrive and be contented with such a simple life. Others, like myself, will come back to, and be drawn by, our memories of the modern world. We are as comfortable in that world as the farmers are in their valleys. We understand the value and the beauty of intensive human production (for all it's faults) whether it be in a bustling market, mind bending works of art, or advanced communication technologies. Unfortunantly for us the subsistence farmers win big time on the sustainability front, but this does not change who we are or will ultimately make us happy. Word?"

So what do you think? Could you be content? Why, why not? Leave responses of epic proportions below :)

Peace,
C