SIMPLE LIVING

“You only lose what you cling to” – Gautama Buddha

The reason we engage in simple living is threefold. One, because it leaves much room for mobility in life especially when we no longer are a slave to consumerism. Two, for preparedness reasons and the concept that the lower to the ground you are when you sleep or lay, the less you have to fall. Three, is for self-actualization.

Simple living is not the same as Asceticism. That is against the Middle Way. A minimalistic life may be the best term for “simple living.” This may look different from person to person and you should always use a Middle Way when determining your level of abundance. There is the ascetics approach and the abundant approach. You and only you need to find the middle that best suits you that is both humbling, rewarding, and innovative. Never be excessive.

The Sun is the most destructive thing in the solar system that we must contend with next to our planet. Our closest ally and the greatest threat is the Sun. We have thankfully dodged large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) in the past. If one of these were to hit the Earth it would be lights out for years, perhaps a lifetime.

The other contending theory for why the ice age ended abruptly in geological terms is because of the Sun. This culprit is a suspect because it is capable of delivering the energy required to melt the ice in our climate system and leave no discernable trace.

The death and destruction would be untold: a large share of all people alive would die if a grid-down CME hit. That could be most of a typical family; you may be the only one left. The solution is less dependence and less addiction to technology. On a long enough timeline, the chances are 100% that a grid-down CME will hit. Estimates of how often a strike this size comes vary, often around once a century, and the last major Earth strike was in 1859 (the Carrington Event). The odds are the same every year, and they are not small.

Just as a CME would bring destruction, climate change is projected to be just as apocalyptic. The only difference though is the speed of destruction: a CME is instant; climate change is over the course of years exponential. In both cases supply lines will be disrupted from port disruption, food will become scarce and famine will occur, illness and disease will be rampant, the economy will falter, energy grids will fail, and many other cascading effects will occur. These effects will cease once a new equilibrium of society and nature is found: a duality.

With this said, the less you have to “fall” from the absence of the materialism of the West when the rug is pulled, the better off you will be to help others. How one person finds equilibrium with nature is a subjective one with many grey areas but for sure it is not the average dwelling one finds in the United States.

In the USA we have a level of abundance that is unlike anywhere else in the world. Our poorest people are economically above the majority in the world. That is not to say that their blight isn’t real but when looking at the whole we must consider the vast differences in wealth in comparison here and abroad.

Movements to downsize have already begun but mostly through economic reasons rather than reasons of ecology or impending catastrophe. Concepts like Van-Life is one of them where one converts a large van into a small home. Tiny-Home, where one lives in a home or shed usually less than 200 square feet. RV-Life, where one lives in a home pulled behind a vehicle.

The ecological impact of these three concepts is far less than the mean of wealthy people in much of the West. An RV, the largest of the three options, in comparison to an apartment unit, the building materials are less, the air conditioning has a smaller footprint, the refrigerator uses less electricity, there is less water usage, and there is less space to fill with things bought. Electricity aside, someone living in Tiny-Home, or RV is more ecologically in balance and comparable to someone living in the late 1800s than the average person now.

We must live a life of sustainability that is Pro-Future. A Pro-Future approach comes from indigenous concepts of taking only what you need from nature to survive. The unfortunate reality is that we are dissociated from nature. We drive by nature on the way to work but we don’t exist in it. We eat it every day, but we have no connection to the process. This disconnection is troublesome that I am sure the residents living in the ancient cities of Ur, Memphis, and Rome endured before their fall and the people fled back to the land.

When you live your life in balance with nature and the knowledge of human nature it can bring meaning into your life. You set yourself apart from those out of harmony. Your livelihood and existence are nimbler, and you are capable of pivoting your life in new directions if need be.