simple living is simply confounding.

There's been a lot of discussion in my circles as of late about getting rid of all of the clutter that complicates our lives.  "Clutter" in this context means stuff - all of the things that we want and continually buy but don't really need and then have to maintain.   Shedding of material weight may sound especially appealing if you're living one of two American extremes right now  - harried from 10-hour days at the office or if you're one of the 10% in America who are unemployed.  If you're the former, having less represents solace; the latter is a forced reality. 

Sometimes, particularly with a glass of wine, this conversation can get really big - beyond the personal and into the philosophical.  Is capitalism a system of opportunity or a system of unavoidable greed?  Has our value system been totally distorted?  Can individualism thrive in a consumer mass culture?  

I seem to be living a duality right now.  As an executive in a branding firm, it is essential that our capitalist economy succeed and consumerism continue forward.  I could write about how I'm a counselor of the pull-marketing economy and can help people manage the shift but at the end of the day people have to be spending money.    

At the same time, this downturn has afforded time that I haven't had before.  The consulting, thinking, blogging and gardening with the kids has been divine. 

I want it all.  No, I want what's real.  Oh hell, I don't know.

Peter Block, http://www.peterblock.com/, and John McKnight, http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/people/mcknight.html, espouse a local, useful economy where citizens have real function and communities thrive.  It's a return to a simpler time when people contribute personal gifts for the sake of a healthy neighborhood.   Their collaborative book about how to rediscover community will be available in 2010.

This month's Foreign Policy magazine offers an interesting article titled, "A Return to Yeomanry" that discusses the appeal of farming and local living in the face of downsizing and few alternatives.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/a_return_to_yeomanry

Time to start the day.  Briefcase or Shovel?