This twist in the meaning of his philosophy is a good example of how much space can grow between a perception and a reality. Epicurus, with his sister and a group of friends, tiring of the falseness of the city life, felt many Athenians were overly concerned with their accumulation of gold and possessions, and had become ‘imprisoned’ in everyday affairs. In response they moved into a shared home (commune) outside the city, between the market and the port of Piraeus, where they purchased a garden nearby and grew vegetables. They changed their diet from luxurious and abundant towards flavourful and nutritious. Simplifying life meant they had ceased to judge themselves on a material basis. In this change of situation they could also make more of their own choices and be free from commands of ‘odious superiors’. They would not need as much to be happy and fulfilled.

Fast forward...
Similar movements have worn different labels during the march of history.
IN 1845 Harvard graduate Henry David Thoreau moved into the bush, cut and milled his own timber and built a small cabin. Through all the seasons he keenly observed the workings of the natural world around him. His book Walden is the classic treatise on living ‘simply and wisely’ to increase one’s freedom of obligations brought on by perceived desires for things not really needed. In the post WWII era of the 1950s and 1960s Beatniks and Bohemians questioned the status quo and the norms of behaviour through their music, poetry and lifestyle. Our Australian experience of a back to nature movement was the Australian Union of Students’ Aquarius Festival of 1973 held in Nimbin. Through media coverage it is remembered for sex and drugs, however, its’ core ideas were about progressive architecture, solar energy, communal living, and organic food production. Just one generation ago the Aquarius people and often surfers were labelled Hippies. These days people who make similar changes in their lifestyles might be referred to as Seachangers. It seems that the people of Byron Shire may be modern day Epicureans- united in a perceived effort to keep it simple. The reality may be something different.

WE in Byron are often accused of being so passionate in so many different ways that nothing gets done. It’s a good point, but it’s also the reason we don’t have high-rise and McDonalds (yet). One thing is for sure, we are a pluralistic,

diverse, complex and self-examining lot.
Thursday morning at the Byron Bay Farmers’ Market, at the mushroom stand: a lady buyer, seeing there are two types, inquires to the owner/grower whether she should get the brown or the white type. The attendant in reply says: “Oh, are you a Libran? ”No,” the lady replies. “I am a Pisces. But, I live with a Libran.” Then, the stallholder‘s husband interjects, “ I’ll give you half of each.” However, when the lady looks at the mix in the bag she realises he had given her three types. This is what we call in Byron, ‘Value Added.”

IN what some call the ‘real world’ outside the Byron Bubble we often see the subtraction of the value of the human. Sydney Morning Herald columnist, Tim Adams, comments on the situation as “the moment when the destructive disjunction between effort and reward that has dominated the last decade or so - the criminal nonsense of the merchant banker bonus economy - is for the first time showing signs of diminishing.” Now the pendulum arcs back toward basics.

IN this ‘post meltdown’ era we will be looking at values and ways which will result in more practical products, less paper wealth, stuff and more respect for social well being and quality of life. Byron is one of those places where people come and experience a truly special mix raw natural environment and culture. There is an intergenerational crossover here that is truly unique. This is demonstrated by the subject variety of our festivals. The perception of Byron as a place where one can find themselves has been widened to where one can also just be themselves. Searching and finding are two different things. But they can join, as can your perception and your reality.

There is effervescence available in Byron. One type of physical expression of this is the wave energy born in storms hundreds of kilometres away. When the swells sweep onto the shallows of our beaches and reefs they stall, build and then tumble and spill in a mass of foaming bubbles. This constantly occurring event causes hundreds of millions of mini ‘explosions’ with each bubble releasing a puff of fresh oxygen gas. I and many others see this event, both actually and perception-wise, as the elixir of life and therefore are convinced it is a reality.

WE don’t determine our time or place of birth or choose our parents. But in our lifetime as individuals we can choose to change location, philosophy and the way we live. And, don’t forget to breathe.