William Powers - Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream

More praise for Twelve by Twelve by William Powers

How much is enough? And what is really important? These are questions that William Powers runs into again and again in his time off the grid in the U.S. and overseas, but his humble and contemplative memoir handles them with freshness and honesty, recognizing that sometimes asking the questions is more important than finding the right answers.

Lester R. Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute and author of
Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

A true story of rediscovery of and reconnection with fundamental truths and values. Enchanting and heartwarming, Twelve by Twelve is a modern-day Walden.

Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center for
Science, Economics, and the Environment

A compassionate yet powerful personal odyssey into the heart of what it means to choose to live with less in a world gone mad for more. William Powerss Twelve by Twelve is not only a retreat of mind from which we all can draw sustenance as we gird ourselves to confront a world heading for catastrophe, it is also a template we can use to ask ourselves what, really, is important in our lives.

Mira Kamdar, author of Planet India

Praise for Blue Clay People by William Powers

A haunting account of one mans determination and the struggles of a people living in a deeply troubled country.

Booklist

William Powers is sensitive, reflective, and a fine stylist.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In this painful and joyful narrative, William Powers provides a vital stratum of truth about life and foreign aid in the worst parts of the underdeveloped world. Robert D. Kaplan, author of Balkan Ghosts

A masterful storyteller Powers has a keen ear for dialogue and dialect, and his prose is lovely and lyrical. [His] honesty about his own flaws places him in the congregation rather than the pulpit.

Providence Journal

Powers sketches scenes of transcendent beauty and grotesque violence, and writes with disarming honesty.

Publishers Weekly, starred review

Few authors sustain a tone of outraged hopefulness through a whole book. Dickens could, as could any number of gloomy Russians, but not many Americans. William Powers is an exception.

Charlotte Observer

A searing memoir recalls the literary travelogues of writers such as Mark Salzman and Bruce Chatwin.

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers,
contributor to NPRs All Things Considered

Blue Clay People is written in a clear style, with a narrative structure that keeps the readers attention. San Francisco Chronicle

Praise for Whispering in the Giants Ear
by William Powers

As an aid worker living in Bolivia, Powers did not just witness the change; he was immersed in the action, forced to juggle the countrys internal conflict with his environmental organizations mission of saving the rain forest. What results is a deeply personal and informative chronicle of Powers ambitions, the Indians ambitions and perhaps most importantly in a country as physically diverse and dramatic as Bolivia, natures ambitions. Publishers Weekly

A rip-roaring chronicle of the struggles and compromises, doubts and determination needed to implement the Kyoto accords an international agreement setting targets for industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions in Bolivia. Newsweek

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africas Fragile Edge

Whispering in the Giants Ear: A Frontline Chronicle
from Bolivias War on Globalization

New World Library
Novato, California

Copyright 2010 by William Powers

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Some names and identifying characteristics in this book have been changed.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers Illustrations by Hannah Morris, Morridesign.com

Excerpt on page 213 from After Making Love We Hear Footsteps from Mortal Acts, Mortal Words by Galway Kinnell, copyright 1980 by Galway Kinnell. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Excerpt on page 214 from Prayer from The Past by Galway Kinnell, copyright 1985 by Galway Kinnell. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Excerpt on page 239 from The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris, copyright 1998 by Kathleen Norris. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Powers, William, date.
Twelve by twelve : a one-room cabin off the grid and beyond the American dream / William Powers.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57731-897-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Sustainable livingUnited States. 2. Alternative lifestylesUnited States. 3. Self-reliant living. 4. Green movementUnited States. 5. EnvironmentalismUnited States. 6. Conservation of natural resourcesUnited States. 7. Powers, William, 1971 I. Title.

GF78.P68 2010

ISBN 978-1-57731-897-2

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn
to become quiet and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to
you unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Franz Kafka

There is another world, but it is in this one.

Paul luard

AT THE BEGINNING OF 2007 , I returned to America after a decade of aid and conservation work in Africa and Latin America. It was a rough homecoming. More than simple culture shock, I felt increasingly disillusioned. Though many of my projects abroad were successful, reducing poverty and protecting local rainforests, a destructive global system hammered at the broader picture. For example, Nobel laureate scientists have predicted that global warming could cause half of the planets plant and animal species to become extinct in just a few decades. My creed