Where have I been?

My deepest apologies for the silence on this blog; while I remain interested in conscious consumption and ethical fashion, I am working on a tight deadline to finish my book, "Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America". This blog will freshen up in September. In the meantime, you can keep track of the book's progress and read snippets at this other blog.

My money and my life

This week in my "simplicity and anti-consumption" class, we are going to focus on efforts that attempt to address personal economics and what the Nearings called "bread work" -- earning a living. Many of these stories overlap with other dimensions of the simple life and anti-consumption, but the main theme is the management of time and energy. I have posted a few resources on the course's companion site, Thoreau's America. These are my own musings on personal economics and simplicity.

From the time I left for college until I finished graduate school at 31, I lived a frugal life by necessity. As a scholarship student who worked part-time and summers to pay for room, board and books, the wife of a graduate student and then a graduate student myself, my skills in making do were finely honed. Spring break trips as an undergraduate? Unheard of. Joining a sorority? Not in the cards. We drove cheap cars we serviced ourselves, and vacations were spent either visiting family and friends, or camping.

When I finished my PhD in 1980, suddenly we had two full adult incomes for the first time in our 10-year marriage. It was a considerable shock; we literally had no idea how to spend the additional money. We booked a weekend at a B&B for our anniversary, subscribed to a few more magazines and went to more concerts. The next thirty years brought a daughter, a house and then a son -- and everything that comes with kids and home-ownership in middle-class America. It also brought recessions, job loss and financial insecurity, despite my steady income as a tenured professor. We've tried to spend wisely and save for college, retirement and emergencies, and for the most part have kept our debt under control. I believe that it is impossible to discuss "the simple life" in America today without including the role of consumer debt.

To live simply in America today means to balance work and leisure, consumption and production, income and expenditure (and debt) in a complex, dynamic society. The act of "balancing" is not the same as being motionless. Try standing on one foot and you can feel the muscles in your body make tiny, continuous adjustments to help you maintain that position. My life is like that: I monitor accounts, plan my time and reflect on my current state of mind and body in order to stay in balance, to the best of my ability.

To be honest, I am never completely in balance, but always having to correct and compensate for the imbalances in my life. Financially, that means making sure I pay my savings account first, to make sure I have funds for inevitable emergencies. I plan my work, to the extent I can, to leave time every day for pause and evaluation. My weekly schedule often includes a "walkabout", an unplanned day when I ride public transportation, visit a park or read at the local library. I am especially cautious about trading time and energy for money (agreeing to a paid speaking engagement or extra teaching) or trading money (which represents my time and energy) for very expensive things. No handbag is worth a week of my hard work, but I willingly exchange the same amount for a vacation with my family.

Guest bloggers wanted on "Thoreau's America"

Between March 24 and the end of May, Thoreau's America (the public site for a course I am reaching this spring) will be exploring simplicity and anti-consumption in today's world. We are looking for guest bloggers to share their own experiences. If you are already a member, just post a blog (there's a minor hiccup of an approval step); if you are a regular reader and want to participate, just sign up for the network first.

Topics of interest include: what you are doing, why, what resources you find useful, tough decisions you have made, the evolution of your lifestyle -- just about anything as long as it is your own experience. We look forward to hearing your stories!

Varieties of simple living, ethical consumption and related ideals and practices

We are one month into this experience, and the requests from the class to define "simplicity" have reached critical mass, so I am going to take a stab at definitions. Yes, "definitions". There are ways to simplify life, and not all of the movements we are discussing were motivated by a desire to live simply or ethically. In many cases, opting for less consumption is a means to an end, not the primary objective. Since the ends vary, this makes the idea of "simple living" even more complicated. (Translation: this is an incomplete list. Very incomplete.)

living within your means (modern example: Frugal Living)
avoiding ostentatious or wasteful spending
avoiding unnecessary spending (not the same as ostentatious/wasteful spending)
an uncluttered life (material goods) (modern example: Unclutter.com)
an uncluttered life (activities, workflow, demands on one's time) (modern example: Getting Things Done)
not harming or exploiting others through actions or purchases (see "fair trade" - Wikipedia)
not harming the environment through actions or purchases (modern example: TreeHugger.com>How to Go Green)
intentional, attentive living (elevating the spiritual or intellectual life over material life) (see Walden)
achieving social justice or political change (see 1965 grape boycott)

Well, that's a start.

For any  one of these ways of living/consuming, it is possible to find people doing the same thing for many different reasons. Some people may live frugally so that one parent can stay home with small children; someone else could be down-scaling consumption to prepare for retirement. There are people who live frugally so they can contribute more money to causes and charities.

For more on this topic, visit or join our class network, Thoreau's America

Words matter

One of the things we will be doing tomorrow is discussing the many
names and flavors of "the simple life". In talking about this blog, I
often use the term "voluntary simplicity", but that name has come to
identify a movement. Although I am familiar with the movement and have
even read many of the classic works, I don't consider myself part of
the movement. Part of that is a matter of community; while I belonged
to a simplicity circle about ten years ago, I no longer have any
relationship with any organized group, network or community.

I am happier with describing what I do as conscious living. I am
trying to reduce the distractions of stuff and busy-ness and to
minimize the harm my lifestyle does to others and to the environment.
I realize that my lifestyle is to a certain extent an accident of
being born in an affluent, highly industrialized country, but I also
acknowledge that I can make informed choices.

I will be curious to hear how they define the simple life. Stay tuned.

(In)voluntary Simplicity

One of the critiques of voluntary simplicity is that it is a choice made possible by privilege. What, after all,is the difference between frugality and poverty? Most readers of Walden know that Thoreau didn't really abandon civilization and live a life of deprivation. His friends provided society and occasional dinners and his mother did his laundry. He could essentially chose his level of poverty and abandon it whenever it was convenient.

My class happens to be reading and discussing Walden just as our furnace has died. A replacement arrives on Tuesday, but in the meantime the forecast is for daytime temperatures in the 20s and 30s. The indoor temperature is inching down, and I have no idea how cold the house could get. If we were wealthy, we'd board the dog and check into a nice hotel or bed and breakfast for the duration. But we are not, and a furnace already costs plenty; adding another $1000 to the tab is not possible.

So instead, I get to experience a few days of involuntary simplicity. Fortunately, we have a gas fireplace in the living room, a window unit heat pump in the family room and I plan to do a lot of baking and roasting in the oven. I am also a big fan of layers and long underwear, and my husband never gets cold. It remains to be seen whether or not this experience will encourage a more spiritual outlook, or a sense of living more deliberately. And no, Mr. Thoreau, I do not plan to pass the time felling trees.