I told Maria a few months ago that one of the things I wish to do at the New Bedlam Farm is broaden the blog a bit – dogs and animals and my life with Maria will always be the centerpiece. I want to write more about the people around me, especially if there is relevance in their lives for others. The words were hardly out of my mouth when Ajay Rubin came bobbing along in the river that is life.

Ajay came by way of Jenna Woginrich, herself on the hero journey, a writer and homesteader, a pilgrim reinventing her life in a brave and daring way. Ajay and Jenna have been best friends for years, since high school, and they know one another the way close siblings do, sharing their own secrets, experiences, interests and culture. Ajay has been drifting in his life, looking for purpose and meaning, and struggling with the choices he feels the world offers him. Jenna invited him to come up to Washington County and see if there is anything there for him, and Ajay spent the summer as a farm intern at Common Sense Farm, a religious community in Cambridge, N.Y. When summer ended, he left and was living at Jenna’s until it occurred to all of us that we could use a caretaker in our temporarily empty new house. We also need some help moving in and getting the place ready.

I don’t know anyone who has as few material possessions as this man. Ajay owns just about what you see in this photo – no car, health insurance, bank account, tools, computer, iPod. He does have a cell phone, a few changes of clothes, and some books. I hope he has a winter coat. He sleeps on an air mattress and does not seem to want a bed, which we offered him.

He does not get or receive e-mail, although he does love to text. He’s a talker, a story-teller, sometimes at ease, sometimes insecure. I like him a lot. He has a good heart, an easy laugh, a gentle manner. He talks a lot. He likes to help. Maria likes him too. I am bringing him some books. Making sure he has some food. We are already arguing about responsibility and the nature of reality. Ajay rejects anything to do with paperwork, corporate or political life, or banks. Good luck to him. We are discussing the tradeoffs of life. He has some growing up to do, but then, he has time to do it. I wrote a book “Geeks,” about a kid like Ajay, but Ajay is not really anything like Jesse Dailey, and I have learned quite a bit about tampering with other people’s lives since then.

I’ve only known Ajay for a couple of weeks. He is “wicked smart,” as Jenna suggested, honest and hard working. He has no clear idea how he will live or evolve in the world, and I have no clear idea how he will either, not that this is really my business or responsibility.

Ajay would like to be an off-the-grid farmer living a sustainable life. He is intrigued by writing, but has no tools with which to write, not even a notebook. His idea is to find a farmer who will let him cultivate some land next Spring in exchange for farm work, vegetables, odd jobs. He would like to camp out at my farm or some other farm next year and begin learning how to farm. He loves Washington County. His idea is to build a camp out in the woods and live by himself. I am not sure this is a fully developed idea, especially in the winter. Images of one of Jon Krakauer’s characters float into my head, the troubled young man wandering off into the barren wilderness.  I can picture me and Red finding him frozen in some hut out behind the farmhouse or buried in three feet of snow.  The fact that we are even discussing it is quite shocking and interesting to Maria and to me. I should have laughed him out off the porch, but somehow, I did not.

Part of me wants to help guide Ajay, and I need to be careful about that. He is a big boy and can take care of himself. Part of me would love to follow his journey, as it touches a lot of chords with me, including my heart and my own hero journey in the world. I think I would be terrified to be Ajay, but he is not. He is brave and seems to me to be quite alone apart from his great friendship with Jenna.  Maybe he can work something out with us. Maybe with another farmer. Maybe Ben could use some part-time help. The two like each other and Ben is in much demand around here.

So I will share his search for his place in life, insofar as he wants me to, and I can. Stay tuned.