The poetry of living off the grid Wednesday, June 02, 2021 If the word “value” is to mean anything, it should at least apply to two or more things. First it should refer to monetary worth, and second, and more importantly, it should refer to appreciation of higher consciousness regarding human experience. In this sense Baron Wormser’s memoir The Road Washes Out in Spring (University Press of New England, 2006) hits the mark on both accounts. First, it is a book that is easily worth more than the price you will pay for it no matter where you buy it. And second, it has mega value(s) related to the times in which we are living now. Although the book was published in 2006 and about a life lived for 25 years previously, Wormser’s experience of living for a quarter century off-the-grid and in the backcountry woods of New England reads like a physical and mental handbook for how one can live self-sufficiently off the land, and how one’s (in this case, his) consciousness is elevated from doing so. We get the nuts and bolts of a hands-on (no electricity, no plumbing or running water, a hand-dug outhouse, a woodstove for heat and cooking, growing enough food to feed a family of four, and no rest for the weary) lifestyle straight from the Wormser’s mouth.