Paris Hilton had to find a friend, put on sunglasses, and drive for thousands of miles to find "The Simple Life." (Never watched the show, just saw a LOT of commercials a few years back.)As for me, it's a little simpler: I just go home. I dig through thousands of pictures to find ONE hardly glamorous shot of me in sunglasses, and it happens to be me up in a tree. The walls of my house are all but bare, even after two years. I freely substitute bacon for proscuitto and romaine for arugula. My wardrobe consists of $6 solid color shirts from Target, not only because they are cheap but because they simply match everything! My house is just over 1000 square feet, and my one car is compact. Which is good, because even with so few feet to clean, I only manage to clean either one about every three months. I could go on...
I like to think that I have made my life simple like this on purpose. No doubt, there is a bit of that at work.
But then again, maybe it's just that I'm fairly lazy and a little bit poor*. Those both go a long ways to revealing my priorities I guess!
Are you lazy and poor (or just "living simply") too?! Prove it!
* Poor being defined loosely as less than 185% of American poverty level, and richer than about 5.8 billion people in the world.
1 comment:
Well, let’s see: you have more square footage than me, bought your first new car at a younger age, graduated college at a younger age, and have enjoyed better family vacations earlier in life than I did. Now who was the poor one?
(Maybe neither. Maybe our priorities are echoed here: “… give me neither poverty nor riches…”)
I am far from exploiting my maximum earning potential. That’s true, but does that make me lazy? (No. Just not driven by dollars.)
Perhaps living the simple life is more about contentment than it is economic definition.
A good article: Understanding Poverty in America
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm
Here’s an excerpt:
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.
Sorry for the long reply, but hey, at least you provoked a reaction! ;-)
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