Remember Little House on the Prairie? I’m sure you’re aware of the book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder* but I’m thinking specifically of the television series that was based on the books and ran from 1974 – 1983. The show brought “simpler” times to life as the stories revolved around the adventures of the homesteading Ingalls family in 19th century Minnesota. There was also a supportive community of people in nearby Walnut Grove and when times got tough, everyone pulled together (even snobby fuss-budget, Harriet Olsen!). Despite the hardships depicted (many of them real tearjerkers as I recall), I always came away from each episode feeling uplifted and optimistic.
When I think about the whole simple living movement, I sometimes wonder if, for many people on the outside looking in, the words bring up images of a 19th century lifestyle similar to that depicted in Little House. Too many seem to think simple living implies giving up something – or many things – and going backward to an earlier, more primitive time. I just don’t think that’s even close to accurate.
A while back, I worked out a straightforward definition of simple living, in order to clarify in my own mind what I’m blogging about. You may remember it:
- Simple living: A deliberately right-sized lifestyle that’s free from ostentation or display, uncomplicated and fundamental.
Note that there’s nothing there to suggest we need give up anything other than ostentation and complication. It does mean giving up conspicuous consumption and letting the (broke) Joneses leave us in their dust, but I don’t really see that as much of a loss. Simple living means a less complicated life, finding our enough-point and realizing gratitude for the abundance we already have.
Even the future, as uncertain as it may feel at times – what with climate change, peak oil, and economic instability constantly looming – isn’t necessarily going to look like our nineteenth century past. The reason, of course, is that we’ve got what Pa Ingalls never had: breath-takingly fast global communication, technology and a vastly increased level of scientific understanding of how our world works. We aren’t going to unlearn anything simply because oil supplies decline. We aren’t going to suddenly forget 100 years of scientific and technological advancement because the climate is destabilizing. And we’re not giving up mobil technology, Skype or email anytime soon.
If we’re smart, we’ll combine the best of both the past and the present to create a whole new future. It may not look like what we’ve got now, and getting there may be a bumpy road, but we have access to so much knowledge at our fingertips that the odds are, I think, very much in our favor .
Image from http://permaculture.tv/permaculture-ethics-and-design-principles-with-david-holmgren/ Click link in the paragraph at right.
I may have shared them before, but in case you missed it, permaculture has three ethics: earth care, people care, and fair share. In addition, there are a number of associated principles (see illustration at left) which together, provide a roadmap. Combine that with instantaneous global communication, scientific knowledge and unprecedented technology, and I think we have a good shot at a fulfilling future that doesn’t have to look at all like the Ingalls’ soddy homestead unless that’s what we choose. We can get started now by walking away from the obscenities of waste and mindless consumption and find ourselves living happier, more satisfying lives of true abundance and wealth – the real wealth of friends and family, fresh safe wholesome food, a cozy home, community, creative arts, and a reconnection with nature. (Come to think of it, that sounds an awful lot like the best things about Walnut Grove, doesn’t it?)
People like you and I already “get it”; our numbers are growing by leaps and bounds. More and more of us can see the writing on the wall and I do get the sense that momentum is building.
What about you? How is your simple living journey progressing? Share your thoughts!
*As a native New Yorker (the state, not the city), I’d like to point out that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband, Almanzo Wilder, spent his boyhood on the Wilder family homestead in the northern New York town of Burke, near Malone. Of all the homes that Laura wrote about in her Little House books, the Wilder house (today a museum) is the only one that still exists in its original location.
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