Nice White Lady

Occupy your closet?

2011-10-20T08:10:00.000-04:00

As part of the Occupy movement, I am participating in a teach-in on my campus on November 3. I will be doing it in the Fashion and Consumer Culture course which will be conveniently in the middle of a unit on sustainability. When I saw the teach-in notice, I immediately saw the connection between economic injustice and consumerism, but I wonder how much I will have to explain to get students into the conversation. What do you see connecting the two?

I have 25 slaves working for me

2011-10-13T11:28:00.001-04:00

Slavery Footprint is a newly launched website and mobile app to help consumers calculate how many slaves are working to prodvide what you use, wear and eat. It's easy to navigate, and "fun" to use, if something that informs you that dozens -- or hundreds -- of human beings, many of them children, are working under the worst possible condictions to make sure you have your chocolate bar, designer jeans and MP3 player. My score was 25, and I am grateful that the website also points me to actions to make slavery truly a thing of the past.

Van Jones: "It's not too late."

2011-04-23T09:59:00.000-04:00

I am at a conference, and alternating my time between attending sessions and grading, but I wanted to quickly share this inspirational video from Van Jones (former White House green jobs "czar" and Glenn Beck witch hunt target). When I start feeling down about the state of environmental activism, I can count on Van Jones to restore my optimism.

It's not too late

My Earth Day rant

2011-04-20T13:37:00.002-04:00

My Twitter friend, Amy (AKA @UUatHome), recently posted a reflection about living green with small children. It's a familiar story, and a timely one as we approach another Earth Day. Most American adults living today have grown up hearing the messages of conservation and environmentalism. I was not quite twenty-one on April 22, 1970, a college student caught up in activism on multiple fronts. It seemed to me at that time that my generation, through the sheer force of numbers, would be able to alter the destructive course our culture was pursuing. Now in my sixties, I look around with a heavy heart and feel that we failed.

I covered this territory in an Earth Day post in 2008, when I was feeling more optimistic.

But the power of the environmental movement, for me, is that the personal level means something. There WAS something I could do; in fact there were lots of things. I could choose to live and work near public transportation. I could grow and cook my own food. I could have no more than two children. I could redefine the American Dream for myself and my family, and raise young adults who shared that dream. I could live and consume consciously, with open eyes.

Why so glum today? Let me list a few reasons: Van Jones being run out of the White House by a demagogue. BP oil spill. Japanese nuclear reactor. Fracking. GOP governors canceling high-speed rail projects. GOP House of Representatives trying to defund the EPA. A Democratic White House sending mixed messages about its commitment to the environment.

All the bicycling, recycling and freecycling in the world won't do a damn thing if those in power are determined to sell out humanity for personal gain. Lately I have been nursing a baby conspiracy theory of my own: they are all aliens, and they need to rebuild their spaceships so they can get out of dodge and rendezvous with the mothership. That's why they don't care about the damage they are doing; they won't be here to see it.

Seriously. All the green initiatives by individuals and communities and -- yes -- corporations won't amount to a hill of beans if we don't elect leaders who support environmentalism. Get out your checkbooks and your canvassing shoes, people. There's an election coming, and it's a big one.

Polyester as an Eco-Friendly Fiber

2011-03-02T09:04:00.001-05:00

I've been posting less about green fashion, but it's still on my radar. There are many creative people out there in the fashion world looking for ways to make our clothing habits more environmentally friendly. This article on Ecouterre makes a good point: much-aligned polyester has potential for ethical fashion, despite its use of non-renewable resources. It is easier to recycle than other fibers, and its upkeep requires less water and energy. Best of all, the author hits the mark with her question:

Can one often-worn and well-loved polyester garment be good for the environment?

My answer is yes, because my own clothing philosophy is based on a flexible, high mileage wardrobe. My well-made, high quality black polyester trousers have survived five years of weekly use (daily use when I attend conferences). $50 on sale, dry cleaned two or three times a year. It's about time to start shopping for a replacement pair, and I am still thinking polyester.

Christina and Zoe

2011-01-11T16:53:00.001-05:00

Since the horrible events in Tucson, Arizona, my thoughts have been drawn to two little girls, both about nine years old. Had they met, these two vivacious, outgoing children might have been great friends, but their lives only intersected on a single day: September 11, 2001. On that bright Tuesday, as we know too well, Christina Taylor Greene was born, a symbol of hope in a terrible, frightening time. That very morning, Zoe Falkenberg, just two months shy of her 9th birthday, had boarded American Airlines flight 77 with her parents and 3-year-old sister on her way to an adventure in Australia.

Zoe's mom was a former colleague; we were also neighbors, members of the same babysitting co-op. September 11 will always summon up Zoe's face, and my still-confused horror that anyone could be so villainous as to look at that child and see a de-humanized, symbolic target for their hatred. Of all the victims in Tucson, it is Christina whose face and story haunt me, somehow joined now with Zoe in the sad trajectory of our recent past.

There were children born all over America on January 8, 2011. What kind of America awaits them in 2020? What can we do to break this destructive cycle of hatred, dehumanization and destruction? Minister better to poor in spirit? Pursue more just policies, here and abroad? Address our culture's embrace of violence? Speak to each other with respect and care? Turn away from those in the media who profit from inflaming our fear and anger?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. For the next Zoe, the next Christina and your children and mine. For Glenn Beck's children and Barack Obama's children. For all of us.

Lentil and sausage soup

2011-01-05T09:43:00.001-05:00

One of the contradictions of my pursuit of minimalist living is that I aim to simplify my consumption of things I actually love to consume. Project 333 is more delicious if I try to make every single one of the 33 items in my wardrobe something I love and could wear EVERY SINGLE DAY, if I had to. Likewise, I love cooking, but most of my adult life has been devoted to discovering ways to maximize my enjoyment of kitchen time and produce great leftovers. The result is a seasonal approach to ingredients combined with what I call "investment" cooking: cooking a large batches of food that can make several encore appearances.

Winter is my time for chili, soups, stews and roasts. Having a large pot of soup simmering on the stove, or a savory roast in the oven on Sunday, warms and perfumes the house with promises of quick meals in the busy week to come. This week's soup is a recipe I clipped about 35 years ago from a now-defunct magazine, Attenzione.

Lentil Soup

2 cups lentils
1 lb. Italian sausage, browned (I prefer sweet, but if you like a really spicy soup, you can use 1/2 sweet, 1/2 hot)
8 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
8 oz. thinly sliced pepperoni
1 cup chopped onion
1 16-oz. can of tomatoes
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients above in a 6-quart pot, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes, stirring now and then.

Add:
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced

Simmer 40 minutes more.

We'll be eating this all week, and I don't care. In fact, I'll be sorry when it's all gone.

If you love the idea of minimalist cooking, I recommend Mark Bittman's "The Minimalist" column in the New York Times and the brand-spanking-new blog Simplifried, Unclutterer's baby sister devoted to "ending mealtime stress".

Race, Twitter and Melissa Harris Perry

2010-12-30T09:33:00.001-05:00

This may seen like a sudden shift of topic, but it is, in fact, directly linked to my last post. In explaining my teaching objectives, I listed two examples of what I meant by "thinking, listening and being present":

It means learning to recognize that we each experience life from our own unique position in time and point of view, shaped by our identity. It means listening to others' opinions and experiences and being able to understand them in the contexts of their own unique humanity.

That evening, an example of this way of thinking played out on The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC). Like many news organizations, the show included a segment on President Obama's comments about Michael Vick's second chance in the NFL. The host then brought in frequent contributor Melissa Harris Perry, a Princeton professor often asked to comment on race, gender and politics. In a very short time (actually three minutes less than she thought she had) Perry attempted to lay out the very complex history and multiple viewpoints involved in the controversy. I thought she did well, probably because it's a topic I already know and could fill in some of the blanks. Apparently the Maddow show audience did not agree. Her email inbox was flooded with angry messages, and her Twitter stream caught fire.

Professor Perry uses Twitter better than just about anyone I know, and she followed up her Maddow appearance with a series of 140-character posts that served as a mini-lecture on the nuances of America's racial history as played out most recently in the Michael Vick controversy. She even provided the slides from a class lecture/discussion that occurred when a PETA demonstration at Princeton angered African American students by comparing animal cruelty to slavery. The "twecture" and the class slides can be found at Mediaiate.

How does this connect to my post? We are fortunate today to have a multitude of ways to connect and interact with others, including people with very different lives and views. How well those conduits serve us depends on our own inclination to think and LISTEN to those views, and to understand that they come from real, living breathing people who are trying to tell us their "truths". The real truth -- if there is one at all -- may be theirs, or ours, or some yet-undiscovered truth. When we communicate only in one direction, or only with our own "tribe", it doesn't matter if we are speaking face-to-face or using the latest sophisticated social network. We do not learn.

Twitter can be an amazing tool for listening to a multitude of viewpoints, and for engaging with earnest questioners. Melissa Harris Perry has it right, in a tweet posted towards the end of the exchange:

Completely possible that I've explained nothing, but hopefully at least raised some questions. As always Tweeps provoke & engage.

Spoken like a true teacher!

Update: Professor Perry has posted her own follow-up at The Nation.com.

"think, listen, and be present"

2010-12-29T10:39:00.001-05:00

With my home workspace ready for the new year, it's time to start preparing for my spring classes, which begin in about four weeks. Serendipitously, Randy Murray (Who Writes for You?) has a compelling post today that perfectly captures what I want for my students. No matter what I am teaching -- popular culture, fashion history, research methods -- my number one goal is to awaken them to thinking. Balzac's dismissive description of unreflective existence, "like skating on the surface of life" (Cousin Bette) jumped out at me from the page in 1977 and changed me forever. In that instant, I recognized what I wanted for myself, having drifted through most of my twenties waiting for "real life" to begin.

Murray's one resolution: "I want to think, listen, and be present".

In my daily life, that means taking some time everyday to stop and really attend to what is right in front of me, whether it is chopping onions or talking with my husband. Embracing the cold, gray winter day I have instead of the spring thaw I long for. One of the reasons I write is that I cannot do it mindlessly.

In my teaching, that translates into really thinking about our relationships with the "stuff" of everyday life. Clothes. Electronic gadgets. Music. Reality TV. It means learning to recognize that we each experience life from our own unique position in time and point of view, shaped by our identity. It means listening to others' opinions and experiences and being able to understand them in the contexts of their own unique humanity. It means learning to write from the center of their being, not from a graphic organizer and a thesaurus.

"think, listen, and be present" -- I like that!

Janustide - my six days of intention

2010-12-28T09:45:00.004-05:00

For years now, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day has been my own private holiday. I've finally decided to give it a name: Janustide. Janus, you may recall, was the Roman god for whom January is named, whose two faces look to the past and the future. He was the god of beginnings, endings and of gates, doors and doorways.

My Janustide is six days of intentional transition from the old year to the new, a mixture of physical and mental decluttering, reflection, planning and preparation. It's the third day, and my home office is nearly ready for the coming semester; one more day will do complete the job. I have moved three large bags of unneeded stuff to the basement for the next charity pick-up, and filled two paper recycling bins. While I work, I listen to books or podcasts (Zencast is a favorite.) A small notebook and pen lie on my desk, ready to capture fleeting ideas or reminders.

I'm curious; do others have the same turn-of the-year rituals?

Update: My office is ready for 2011! Yes, that's a sewing machine at the far right.

Preemptive downsizing

2010-12-26T20:03:00.001-05:00

I am not about to retire, and we don't plan on selling our house for at least 5-10 years. But while everyone else seemed to be lugging new stuff into their homes, we've been dragging things to the curb for pick-up. So far, we've had two charity pick-ups and one Freecycle giveaway in the last three weeks, for a total of probably 40 cubic feet less stuff in the house, and we've acquired less than 5 cubic feet of new stuff. That doesn't count the old papers, calendars, craft supplies and other odds and ends that went out with the recycling or the trash.

Here's how I see it: when we do decide to move to a smaller place, I don't want to find myself trying to reduce our 8 rooms of belongings by half over a few harried months. (Not to mention the basement and garage. Eeek!).

Here's a simple way to start: If you buy something new, get rid of two old things. Or three. For more great ideas, check out Gretchen Rubin's Eight tips for preparing for a real (or virtual) move at The Happiness Project.

The hard days ahead

2010-12-05T13:26:00.001-05:00

We may not be re-living the Great Depression, but this is as close as I ever want to come. Thanks to the surviving New Deal safety nets, those much-aligned government bailouts, and a modest federal stimulus, the economy is recovering -- slowly. Keep in mind that two years into the Great Depression, Hoover was still President and the economy was still sinking. I heard on the radio this morning that it may take four or five years to restore the millions of jobs lost during the recession, to the point where everyone who wants to work has a job and is working to their desired capacity.

My husband and I are fortunate. We have secure jobs, and my full-year, half pay sabbatical two years ago reacquainted us with frugal habits that still serve us well. But the last two year's political kabuki, culminating in the shameful unemployment insurance extension vs. tax cuts lame duck congressional drama has convinced me that it is serious hunker time.

What do I mean by hunkering down? I don't mean withdrawing into my shell, taking care of myself and building walls to protect my safe little world. There's too much of that attitude around, as it is. Here's the deal:

Whatever the government does that is going to work, it's going to take a while. (If we are lucky, the bad stuff will also take its time to manifest itself. Some silver lining!) So it's up to me to make sure the people in my immediate circle survive the hard days ahead. That means supporting my son until he gets work. Entertaining more at home, because it not only saves money, but feeds bodies and souls. Working through my communities to neighbors in need. Supporting local nonprofits who are taking of the slack when government programs are cut back.

This doesn't mean I've given up on political activism. I will be watching our leaders and I have an excellent memory. Any politician who blocks good ideas for the sake of partisan politics or cold ideology -- should consider that a warning.

Poison Politics: Confessions of a Not-so-nice White Lady

2010-11-30T15:35:00.001-05:00

Don't get me wrong; most of the time I am just about the nicest person you've ever met. The UU first principle, to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, is central to my world view. Most of the time. But now and then, -- have you ever seen the old Disney cartoon when mild-mannered Goofy becomes a "motormaniac" behind the wheel? (Linked below) That's me when I consume too much partisan political media. Twitter, Facebook, Huffington Post, Time's Swampland -- all my favorite haunts are danger zones for me these days. Information is good; in fact, reliable information is essential to forming an intelligent opinion. Intelligent opinion, likewise, is awesome. Sadly, reliable information and intelligent opinion do not have the entertainment value of opinions full of snark, satire and bile, especially when I agree with those opinions. It can be even more delightful to add my own sarcastic zinger to a re-post or comment thread.
But I am growing tired of their bitter aftertaste. I feel the need, more and more these days, to mind my acid tongue, to pause and edit, to delete that mean-spirited tweet. I am trying to generate a more reasonable ambiance, even in my own little corner of the internet. Later on today, I am going to split my "political" list on Twitter into two groups: the sane and the snarky. Then, I plan to make every effort to maximize my consumption of good information and rational opinion and moderate my exposure to political venom. I will try VERY, VERY hard to pass along only what is constructive, especially in the broadcast spaces of Twitter, Facebook and blogging.
Because keeping the "Nice" alive is important.
I don't want to be like Mr. Wheeler:

My take on Project 333 (minimalist clothing)

2010-11-29T09:57:00.001-05:00

Minimalist fashion has fascinated me for most of my adult life, so the idea behind Project 333 -- committing to a 33-piece wardrobe for 3 months was instantly appealing. I made my list and set off to live minimally only to discover I ALREADY AM. The first clue should have been that I had trouble coming up with 33 items; all I had to do was move one pair of jeans and a couple of long-sleeved tees to the bottom drawer, and I was good to go. Instead, I've used the experience as a chance to reflect on the preconditions for minimalism.

1) My existing wardrobe is already designed to be flexible. I buy very few patterned items, choose solid colors that go together, and reply on accessories to jazz up my outfits. Yay, earrings. Boo, having to count them on the list.

2) The project rules exclude underwear from the list of 33 items, which happens to coincide with my own personal philosophy that life is too short for boring undies.

3) The biggest challenge was their choice of dates (October 1- December 31), which in the Washington D.C. area can run the gamut from low 80s to 8" of snow. My "winter" season, (wardrobally speaking) runs from Hallowe'en to St. Patrick's Day.

I would quibble with some of their rules: a bracelet counts, but wedding rings don't? Please! Until we have full marriage equality, I would argue that participants could be allowed one exempt item of jewelry, to accommodate anything worn on a regular basis for symbolic or sentimental reasons. Also, in my world, a purse is not a wardrobe item, it's strictly practical. (Why is purse on the list, and not wallet?) I carry a largish tote to work (papers, books, wallet, lunch) and a smaller bag (wallet, phone, notebook) all other times. If I switched to a shopping bag for everything, would it count or not? Ditto sunglasses. My little clip-on sunglasses are not a fashion item (as my son assures me); I wear them because the light hurts my eyes.

If you like the idea of Project 333, you'll probably enjoy the other posts on the Be More with Less website. Lots of tasty food for thought.

Aging gracefully (or not)

2010-11-27T20:06:00.001-05:00

Somehow, I ended up simultaneously reading two books about women trying to deal with aging. The first, All Over the Map, by Laura Fraser, is a "coming-of-middle-age" tale of travel, food and romance. The other is Growing Up in Old Age, is a more searing look at the "unyielding course of aging", from the vantage point of novelist and poet Margaret Howe Freydberg when she was in her late 80s. I picked the first because I thought it was a travel/food book, and the second because I wanted to gain some insight into the aging process from someone in the trenches. But they have both raised the interesting and disturbing question of what it means for a woman to lose her looks to age.

I thought of myself as attractive when I was in my twenties, but never pretty and certainly not beautiful. My mother's side of the family has blessed me with good skin and an hourglass figure (which didn't seem like such a blessing in high school). Since casual acquaintances seldom seem to recognize me, I tend to think of myself as generic, if not plain. But it is one thing to be plain, or appealing or whatever mildly positive descriptor one might choose, and another to become unattractive, or even ugly. I am ashamed to admit it, but I used to feel vaguely angry when I looked at my mother's sagging chin, or lined face, or drooping eyelids. Now they are mine.

The heroine in All Over the Map is, despite her misgivings, young enough to dress and act seductively. Margaret Howe Freydberg remembers those days, but has moved far beyond them. I am in the middle, wondering if I will detect the line when it is crossed.

Black Friday and Why I am not Shopping

2010-11-26T10:40:00.001-05:00

I am one of those selfish people not helping the economy today. I am the Scrooge who doesn't pile presents under the tree (but not the Grinch who steals them). I love the Christmas season, and that means you won't find me in line at any store at 4 a.m. on Black Friday. About fifteen years ago, in order to focus my voluntary simplicity energies on the holidays, I made a list of the most meaningful aspects of Christmas, the ones I wanted to experience MORE , and a second list of the things about the holidays that made me feel anxious or empty. Music and spirituality were at the top of the "More" list, and shopping for presents was clearly the activity I was more than ready to let go.

It was not an easy task. My children were still young enough (8 and 13) to want lots of presents under the tree. I actually did enjoy the mall experience: listening to the music, watching kids visiting Santa and savoring the buoyant atmosphere of holiday shopping. But choosing and buying presents made me anxious (Would they like this or that? Was I staying within my budget? Can this be mailed in time?) and every year when the presents were all opened, I felt empty and let down.

I won't relate all of my simplifying experiences at once, but share them over the next few weeks. For now, let me just say I am not shopping today. I am listening to Christmas music, knitting a hat for the mitten tree at church and pulling out my favorite mantle decorations.

Nice White Lady is back!

2010-11-26T10:20:00.001-05:00

I am back, after a too-long hiatus. I am still waiting to do the revisions on my book, which means I may disappear at any moment, but lately this blog has been calling to me. As with most sabbaticals, taking time off from NWL has given me time to re-think my purpose. Long-time readers may remember when it was about white privilege, anti-racism and crafting an ethical life. Then, the emergence of the green fashion movement, especially the sudden trendiness of bamboo rayon, pulled me almost entirely into sustainable style, leave other everyday issues in the shadows. Those issues didn't go away, so NWL's focus on ecofashion left me with nowhere to ponder all the other internal conflicts and ethical dilemmas in my life.

Finally, it hit me. A blog is not a book; I don't have to maintain a tight focus for pages and pages (or years and years). While ethical consumption will still be an important theme, I plan to expand my scope to include other everyday quandaries. If I can resolve the question by referring to etiquette, dogma or ideology, I probably won't trouble you with it. This is the place where I try to figure out how to handle life's humble conflicts, while staying true to myself, a nice white lady who is not trying to save the world, just discern my own right path through it.

Project 333

2010-10-27T11:02:00.002-04:00

I take time from my Pink and Blue writing project (going well, thanks, but but still gobbling my life) to point interested readers to Project 333, an interesting experiment in minimalist fashion. The challenge is living for 3 months with a 33-item wardrobe. I am going to give it a try, and do a few updates here as well. If you are a Facebook user, you can join their page and interact with others.

Where have I been?

2010-07-14T12:21:00.001-04:00

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

2010-04-03T10:22:00.001-04:00

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"

2010-03-05T08:16:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-18T10:06:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-02T16:43:00.002-05:00
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

2010-01-28T20:51:00.001-05:00

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.

Why Read Walden?

2010-01-28T15:02:00.001-05:00

In class yesterday, we divided into small groups to brainstorm what we should emphasize in our discussion of chapter 1 of Walden on February 3. By far the most thought-provoking response was this, from one group:

"We feel that we should not continue to read Walden. We should be thinking about things that are modern, that are relevant to today's issues and creating something new. After all even Thoreau says, "One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessel" (Walden, p.11) and says that change "is taking place every instant" (ibid). In order to understand change we have to realize it is constantly changing."

As a historian, I believe that the past has lessons, though I acknowledge that it should never be used as a blueprint. Some of Thoreau's ideas still resonate and inspire; some are dated beyond usefulness. And then there is the troubling issue of Thoreau's position of privilege, which makes it possible for him to undertake his two-year experiment and publish a book about it. (Not unlike today's No Impact Man)

I ask you: Why read Walden, in 2010? Or were my students right?

For more discussion on Walden, stay tuned to our Ning network, Thoreau's America. To see all the discussion ideas, click here.