There was a time period where my friends and I were getting invited to these new exciting community projects in the Central America and Asia and Europe. Crypto millionaires and retired billionaires trying to bootstrap whole new civilizations and villages and large retreat centers.
Yet, all of us felt a certain affinity and even responsibility to stay in the States.
Which is a little strange considering probably all of our families also have immigrated here at some point.
How does one assess whether to establish a new home abroad and call it quits on the homeland? Or stick it out and try to make it work?
It reminds me of the dilemma that's often posed around do you try to reform an institute as a player within or do you go off and establish a brand new thing? Does staying in the current system doomed to be corrupted and compromised? Or is going off naive and doomed to failure as a retreat from life?
As I'm writing this, I could see the same dilemma in deciding whether to stay working for a corp or start your own business. Or stay in a currently challenging relationship or call it quits to find a new partner. Or even try to be a lay person in the world or go off to be a monk in the mountains.
I suppose the answer is ultimately context is what matters most.
And I've yet to see a really compelling abroad experiment that seemed actually integrated or likely to deliver on the promises.
I, myself, have been increasingly interested in building out more of the physical and social infrastructure locally to create the new type of village community in AVL. But, those billionaire communities or even rural Portugal tiny communities do tempt me at times.