Simply Green
By Alternative Channel's Contributor Cody Larocque
Thought the adherents to Simple living may practice it for many reasons such as; spirituality, health, increased time with family and friends all the way to anti-consumerism and social justice. The movement can take many forms not only related to abstaining from worldly or classically trivial activities such as the old adage of "wine women and song" though ascetic practices are common not every person practicing voluntary simplicity is an ascetic. The universal adage for the movement is along the lines of "a outwardly a more simple life, inwardly a richer life"
Approaches to a "Simple life" can very greatly. Some participants simply choose to their need to purchase goods and service there by significantly reduce there need to sell there time for money (work). With this extra time the individual will often choose to enrich there life via building closer personal ties to friends and family, but some may also choose to pursue cultural or artistic endeavours. The "Green" factor of Simple living comes to the forefront when it tackles the issue of consumerism, specifically hyper- consumerism, which is the act by which an individual or individual places the act of making money and purchasing goods as the highest values and conduit to happiness in life, whether the choice is conscious or not.
The offshoots of hyper-consumerism are in fact tied directly to the issue of sustainable development. If individuals constantly scrounge and hustle for more and more, with a continued "the grass is greener" mentality, then as we all know there will not be any grass left. Simple living aims at combating the claims that happiness rests in objects by protesting valiantly that it rests in each of us through our connection to one another and the planet.
Photo by: Katie@! Courtesy of Flickr.com
Posted by on 11/07 at 03:25 PM