SIMPLE LIVING

The two factors driving all our ecological problems is population numbers and affluent lifestyles.

The concept of simplicity, as a religious practice or philosophy of life, has a long history. Inner simplicity and outer simplicity are both involved. Accumulating material possessions is part of the American Dream. For some, the dream has become a nightmare. When do material possessions add meaning to our lives and when do they detract?

A growing number of people wish to resolve the conflict between the desire to make and spend money and the desire for a simple life. Why is that so difficult in our culture?

In modern society, our minds are focused on the "busyness" of the day, our current problems, and our future challenges. Are there alternatives to the fast pace of our mainstream culture? As a society, we engage in patterns of material consumption that are damaging the environment. How much do we really need?

Our country's current guiding economic principles push growth, consumption, and technological advance as inextricable and desirable goals. In our efforts to live simply, we may feel like we are swimming against the tide. There are countless practical benefits in moving toward simplicity. What steps can be taken to move toward a life simple in means, rich in ends?
From Voluntary simplicity: An Eight-Session Course for the Workplace, Faith Center, or Home, You can conduct a course using this book, see http://www.nwei.org/pages/simplicity.html

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

PLACES TO BUY GOODS

Conscious Consumer http://www.newdream.org/consumer/index.php
National Green Pages- National Directory of Screened and Approved Green Businesses
http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/greenpages/
Real Goods http://www.realgoods.com/
True Goods www.TrueGoods.com
Seventh Generation http://www.seventhgeneration.com

VIDEOS

Affluenza: The Cost of High Living, an excellent 57 minute video. explores the high social and environmental costs of materialism and over-consumption. To order call (800) 937-5387; produced by public TV station KCTS in Seattle. To order contact Bullfrog Films at 1-800-543-FROG, or the Web at www.bullfrogfilms.com. Or http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/show/about.html.

Sequel: Escape From Affluenza: Living Better On Less by PBS, Special; de Graaf, John & Boe, Vivia with host Urbanska, Wanda. This is the solution-oriented sequel to Affluenza. Hosted by Wanda Urbanska, co-author of Simple Living, Escape picks up where Affluenza left off by profiling people and organizations that are reducing consumption and waste, choosing work that reflects their values and working to live in better balance with the environment. A 57 minute, Bullfrog Films, $29.95 for home viewing. See New Road Map Foundation Web site to order. Or order from Bullfrog Films, For churches to buy the films for public performance, they are $75 each. Teacher's Guide, is available at the PBS Web site at http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/

Videos from Seeds of Simplicity: See http://www.seedsofsimplicity.org/. Kids Speak Out on "Stuff" 3 "Unstuff" Public Service Announcements created by kids for kids (7 min.). People Count: Consumed with Consumption TBS expansion of CNN's Fall 1999 segment (30 min.)

RELIGIOUS BOOKS ON SIMPLE LIVING

The New Green Christmas: How to Make This and Every Holiday an Environmental Celebration , Evergreen Alliance. Halo Books, 1991.Simplicity as Compassion: Voluntary Simplicity from a Christian Perspective. A study guide for congregations. An eight-week course. By Earth Ministry: Connecting People with the Creation. http://www.earthministry.org

Wedding Alternatives packet.. How to create a simple, meaningful wedding, with ideas on vows, location, food, flowers, invitations. Alternatives, 1992, http://members.aol.com/altsimliv/simple.html.

Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? Booklet for enhancing and simplifying the celebration of Advent and Christmas. Contents include weekly mediations, services, and activities. Available from Alternatives in versions for various denominations and in a generic version, http://members.aol.com/altsimliv/simple.html

GENERAL BOOKS
The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life Cecile Andrews. HarperCollins. 1997. Exploring the voluntary simplicity trend.

The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices : Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists by Michael Brower, Warren Leon, New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999. They say that only seven spending categories account for most consumer-related environmental damage, allowing meaningful consumer choices to be distinguished from less significant ones.

Good Stuff? A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy by Worldwatch Institute http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/goodstuff/ Pamphlet that can be downloaded free.

How Much is Enough? The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth . Alan Durning, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992. A Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series publication.

The Last Taboo on Television . Article by Duane Elgin. The last taboo on television is television itself--and how it is profoundly biased toward high consumption ways of life that the earth cannot sustain. In the U.S. the average person sees 25,000 commercials a year on TV. Commercials represent far more than a pitch for a particular product; they are also advertisements for the attitudes, values and lifestyles that surround the consumption of that product. See http://www.awakeningearth.org/taboo.html

Radical Simplicity: Small footprints on a Finite Earth by Jim Merkel (New Society Publishers, 2003) http://www.globallivingproject.org/book.html

The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living by Janet Luhrs, Broadway Books, 1997, can be ordered from the Simple Living Network at http://www.slnet.com/cip/slj/btslg.htm. The author is editor of the quarterly publication, Simple Living: The Journal of Voluntary Simplicity.

Simplicity as Compassion: Voluntary Simplicity from a Christian Perspective. A study guide for congregations. An eight-week course, By Earth Ministry, http://www.earthministry.org/.

Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John C. Ryan, Alan Thein Durning, Northwest Environment Watch, 1997.

Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, rev. ed. Elgin, Duane. New York: William Morrow, 1993. Voluntary simplicity is not about living in poverty, it is about living with balance and experiencing the non-material riches of a sustainable, satisfying and soulful way of living.

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin. Viking Penguin, 1992. There is also a Workbook and Study Guides, and a training video for group leaders. New Road Map Foundation (NRM) teaching their "new road map" for personal finances and health through books, tapes, public education, media appearances and scientific research. See http://www.newroadmap.org/default.asp

WEB SITES

Ad Busters http://www.adbusters.org/home/

Alternatives for Simple Living http://www.simpleliving.org/. A non-profit organization that quips people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly.

Center for a New American Dream Helping People Consume Responsibly for our Families and the Planet. http://www.newdream.org

Co-op America’s National Green Pages http://www.coopamerica.org/

Earth Ministry http://www.earthministry.org/

New Road Map Foundation Vicki Robin, co-author of the best seller Your Money or Your Life, and her colleagues. http://www.newroadmap.org.

Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) develops programs that motivate and educate individuals and organizations to protect the earth. http://www.nwei.org

Voluntary Simplicity An Eight-Session Course for the Workplace, Faith Center, or Home. http://www.nwei.org/pages/simplicity.html

Seeds of Simplicity Organizing & Educating for Voluntary Simplicity: Tools for Children, Adults & Community. A Program of the Center for Religion, Ethics & Social Policy at Cornell University. Information on Simplicity Circles-- small groups (between 4 and 8) of people meeting regularly to help each other simplify their lives.  http://www.simpleliving.net/seedsofsimplicity/

Simple Living Network http://www.simpleliving.net/. for conscious, simple, healthy and restorative living. Includes The Web Of Simplicity- , A step-by-step guide and a good overview of the simple living "movement". http://www.simpleliving.net/webofsimplicity/default.asp.

Your Money Or Your Life http://www.simpleliving.net/ymoyl/