Maybe 15 feet by 5 feet, the one-man crevice is crammed with buckets holding a few days’ worth of rice and beans, books and cooking pots. His cozy cave is an hour’s stroll from town. There’s just too much of a price to pay.” But the longer I do this, it seems absurd to go back,” he says. “I have no idea what the future holds, and I don’t worry about it.

“He is living proof that money can’t buy happiness.”Įvery summer, when the heat in Moab reaches unbearable - especially for a cave-dweller - Suelo hits the road, visiting friends and gatherings along the West Coast, where he is known only as “Suelo.” He is so deeply peaceful, it’s contagious,” says Damian Nash, Suelo’s college roommate and a high school teacher in Moab. “He is truly the happiest person I have ever met. Today, he embraces an ascetic life of “art and philosophizing.” He’s hardly the growling hermit, instead circling town on his trash-bin-built bike, engaging a wide circle of pals. Barter is another form of money, and Suelo doesn’t deal with any form of currency. He doesn’t barter or work for food or rent. “We use all our energy to maintain our possessions, and it becomes an ugly cycle,” he says. He was disillusioned with his job working at homeless shelters and enclaves for battered women in Denver and Boulder.Įventually, he concluded his growing despair was tied to fretting over his financial ability to maintain his stuff. He had just returned from two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. His University of Colorado degree in anthropology wasn’t fulfilling.

“I think taking things as they come naturally is the key to good health,” he says.Ī decade ago, Suelo was dizzy with depression. Tanned, with a mop of gray locks framing his Buddy Holly glasses, he is a picture of contentment, his lithe frame stretched in the fall sun amid prickly pear cactus and red rock. Suelo, who was born with the last name Shellabarger, is unfettered with worries about a mortgage or bills or income. “The understanding that, really, we all possess nothing is the cornerstone of all spiritual endeavors and religions,” he says.Īnd there are health reasons. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu

Man hasnt spent money in 14 years