By Sherrie Grisé
Published December 2002
You may know Simple Living by other names such as Sustainable Living or Voluntary Simplicity. It encompasses a wide range of interests including personal finances, community building, the environment and social justice.
The Simple Living Movement has many participants, be they members of barter networks, cooperatives, community gardens, conversation cafés, study circles, or people advocating for cycle lanes, a cleaner environment, sustainable energy use, or a more just society. People involved in simple living are a diverse group who reside in the suburbs, in city cores, and in rural areas. They are creating new pathways for living graciously in a society that is increasingly frantic and fearful, amidst a landscape of concrete, hastily built strip malls and neon lights. People who live simply are swimming upstream in a consumer society. They are searching in their lives for quality over quantity. They are changing how they acquire and prepare food, the way they educate their children, their relationships, how they entertain, and the pace of lives. They are changing what they expect from politicians and public life. They are focusing on life-centered values. They recognize that how they live impacts directly on the lives of others. They believe they must ‘live simply so that other may simply live.’
The Simple Living Movement is not a political movement that grows from the top down. It grows from word of mouth, from example, from experimentation, and is supported by like-minded publishers and media. As Vicki Robin, coauthor of Your Money or Your Life said, “It is a Potluck Revolution, a non-violent, socially democratic, leaderless celebration; a demonstration of a better way.”
