Author Event: Mark Sundeen - The Man Who Quit Money

Author Reading & Discussion

Mark Sundeen & Daniel Suelo

The Man Who Quit Money  

6:00pm, Wednesday, May 16th

at the Hood River Count Library

Co-Sponsored by the Columbia River Fellowship for Peace
& the Hood River County Library

Waucoma Bookstore, The Columbia River Fellowship for Peace, and the Hood River County Library are hosting Mark Sundeen & Daniel Suelo for a book reading and discussion at 6:00pm on Wednesday, May 16th at the Hood RIver County Library Community Room.  Sundeen will be discussing his book The Man Who Quit Money.   Man Who Quit Money tells the story of Daniel Suelo, now 50 years old, who has lived without money for over a decade. Daniel Suelo will also be at the reading, and will be participating in the discussion. 

About the Book

Twelve years ago Daniel Suelo pulled from his pocket his life savings—thirty dollars—laid it inside a phone booth, and walked away. Since then he has lived – to all appearances sanely, even joyfully – without money, credit, barter, or government hand-outs, fulfilling a vision of the good life inspired by the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, and the Hindu wandering monks known as Sadhus. In the tradition of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and Elizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man, Mark Sundeen's The Man Who Quit Money tells the story of Daniel Suelo, now 50 years old, who has lived without money for over a decade. “I know it is possible to live with zero money,” Suelo declares. “Abundantly.”

Daniel Suelo does not pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives free in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages blackberries and wild onions, scavenges road kill raccoons and squirrels, pulls expired groceries from dumpsters, and is fed by friends and strangers. Since giving up money, Daniel Suelo has felt a sense of freedom, security and peace he could never find before. As the rest of us feel the burden of a turbulent economy, with its tax deductions, variable rate mortgages, retirement plans and money market accounts—Suelo has removed himself so completely from the money-based economy that he no longer even holds an identification card.  It is tempting to think that Suelo must be some sort of derelict, living off of society without contributing, or that he has broken not only with money, but with all of society to live as a hermit, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Daniel Suelo is well-educated, has been in the Peace Corps, has held regular jobs, studies theology and thinks deeply and philosophically about how to live a good and faithful life. He has many friends, is close with his family, and is a well-known member of the Moab, Utah community.  Not only does Suelo manage to amply fulfill the basic human needs—for shelter, food and warmth— but, to an enviable degree, the universal desires for companionship, purpose, and intellectual and spiritual engagement.

About the Author

Mark Sundeen is an award-winning writer whose work appears in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, National Geographic Adventure, McSweeney’s and The Believer. He is the author of the books Car Camping (HarperCollins, 2000) and The Making of Toro (Simon & Schuster, 2003), and co-author of North By Northwestern (St. Martin’s, 2010), which was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Sundeen was born in Harbor City, California, in 1970. After graduating from Stanford University, Sundeen spent ten years in Moab, Utah, sometimes homeless, working odd jobs, river guiding, and leading Outward Bound wilderness courses. It was here, in 1993 while working as a short order cook, that he first met Daniel Suelo. Sundeen holds a masters in writing from the University of Southern California, and has taught at the MFA writing programs at the University of New Mexico and Western Connecticut State University. Since moving to Montana in 2005, he splits his time between Missoula and Moab.

About Columbia River Fellowship for Peace

Columbia RIver Fellowship for Peace (CRFP) is a not-for-profit peace and just group serving communities in the Mid-Columbia region of Oregon and Washington.

 

 

 

Mission Statement:

The Columbia River Fellowship for Peace is a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to peace and justice on several levels: self, family, school, workplace, and community. We give emotional support, share information, promote nonviolent conflict resolution, and act to rid ourselves of the global threat of militarization. By making this commitment, we vitalize the creative potential within all of us and work to ensure our survival as a living planet.

 

For more information about Columbia River Fellowship for Peace, go to: 

http://www.columbiariverpeace.org