Vol.8 No.1

Back to Basics
Join the growing trend of people consuming less, slowing down, saying no, and getting out of the rat race.
by Roxana Kiss

How much time do you have for yourself? For your family? Do you wish you had the time to work outdoors, write a letter or read a good book? Are your values truly reflected through your work? When was the last time you cooked a meal from scratch? Or invested time in a friendship?

If you can identify with any of these questions, you might be a member of a growing segment of society maxed out on modern living. The impact of those pleading for a simpler life has become significant enough to launch several major studies.

The studies reveal that civilized moderns are exhausted and extraordinarily stressed out, even though they make more money, spend more on recreation, and possess technology to make their work more efficient. One survey showed that over 50% of Americans have taken steps in the past five years to simplify their lives and would prefer more free time to more money.¹ These are people with a house full of stuff, mountain bikes in the garage, sun chairs on the patio but not enough time to enjoy them. Their buried wish list—planting a garden, volunteering, socializing with the neighbors, a week in the woods—has no hope of resurrection. Their lives are burdened by “too many commitments, too little cash, too many possessions, too little time.”²

Who’s simplifying?

People at the highest levels of society have made significant changes to simplify their lives. Jeffrey Stiefler, the president of American Express, quit his job to work less and to spend more time with his family. William Galston, a key adviser to President Clinton, walked away from his White House job, stating in a letter that, “Baseball is not fun when there is no one there to applaud you.” Anna Quindlen, an editor at the New York Times, quit her post to be home with her children. Stephanie Hood from the DuPont corporation went from full time to part time work—30 hours per week: “We wanted a better balance in our lives,” she says about herself and her husband. She also refuses jobs that require increased travel.³

People who are serious about simplifying suggest you ask yourself whether you are in control of your lifestyle or whether your lifestyle is controlling you. In order to gain control of their lifestyle, Diane and Duane decided to whittle down their expenditures to a minimum, to use their backyard garden as their main source of food, to do their own repair work, to buy as many second hand goods as possible, and to find low budget entertainment in the neighborhood. They work two or three days a week, spending the rest of their time at home with their children, gardening and working for charitable causes.⁴

Simplifiers tend to buy less things, particularly luxuries. Many follow the three Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle—though not solely for environmental reasons. Reduce the expenses, reuse second hand goods, recycle items that quit serving their purpose.

Others, like Texas residents Charles and Kay Giddens, moved from the hectic, big city of Dallas to the rural, quiet of Taos.  Today the ex-lawyer Charles and his wife are the proprietors of the Taos Little Tree Bed and Breakfast, which they built and decorated themselves.⁵

Reexamine your priorities 

Simplicity does not mean poverty. There is nothing enabling about poverty. Simplicity is a lifestyle that’s freely and willingly chosen. By limiting their needs, in the long run, plain-livers are able to consume less of life’s finite energy for things that don’t bring the returns they are looking for. Additionally, they can choose to invest means or time to help those in need around them. 

Voluntary simplicity is a trend of all times. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, advanced the “Golden Mean”—a balance in all things as being the virtue of just enough. He considered contentment a virtue. In the United States the early Puritans and Quakers advanced a simple ethic in order to form a model Christian society; even today, Quakers continue to be among simplicity’s strongest proponents. In the 1950s, so called Agrarians located the simple life not in parlors, but on farms and homesteads. They were looking for an authentic and ecologically sustainable mode of existence. In our time, the simple life identifies with the independent, do-it-yourself streak that’s as much a part of the American psyche as is the contrary urge to consume.⁶ 

Simplifying your life may not give you more than twenty-four hours a day, but it could help you save enough money that you no longer need to work full time, or work extra hours. The difference is one of lifestyle. Those who choose to live simply do so because it enables them to spend their time on things that are meaningful and rewarding to them.

References:

1. U.S. News and World Report, December 11, 1995, “Time Out.”
2. Vegetarian Times, August 1995, “Maxed Out on Modern Life.”
3. U.S. News and World Report, December 11, 1995, “Time Out.”
4. Vegetarian Times, August 1995, “Maxed Out on Modern Life.”
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.