When Simple Isn't Easy
WILDAVSKY, RACHEL FLICK
Books When Simple Isn't Easy By Rachel Flick Wildavsky Here is a story that has captivated hundreds of thousands of Americans: Not long ago, there was a successful businesswoman. She and her...
...Reading her will convince anyone who didn't already know so that, much as we may love our leisure, work benefits us in far more than material ways...
...Clean up your relationships," she advises, applying one of her favorite metaphors to a step that might more accurately be described as, "Jettison the needy...
...If this brutal candor is too hard for you-if you are "a pushover"- St...
...Here it gets sadly predictable: weird therapies, fruit-juice diets, ersatz religions-the whole New Age ball of wax...
...don't go to the door...
...Their solution...
...The book is bound in simple, tasteful beige with simple, austere lettering in a square, precious size...
...To be fair, not all simplifiers are like St...
...James designated a section in her linen closet for collecting and storing such items...
...But St...
...Yet a third volume, Living the Simple Life, is scheduled for release this spring...
...James's books is enough to make the rabid pursuit of filthy lucre seem like a morally healthy way of life...
...James assumes that the only reason people work hard is to consume conspicuously-competing with friends and neighbors in a shallow war of appearances-or to "buy happiness" through fancy toys and entertainments...
...James desires to connect to "a power that is larger than ourselves, whether we think of it as God, a supreme being, or simply the energy of the universe...
...Our heroine is Elaine St...
...Invent a dance: "whirl and twirl or stomp and rock...
...James...
...The New York Times even ran a couple of photos of St...
...They would rather be free...
...She further recommends that you "simplify" your grocery shopping by planting a garden-something like simplifying your travel planning by building a plane...
...This is not an easy goal to accomplish, and attaining it is a genuine achievement...
...Also, adopt a sort of uniform...
...Its back cover tells shoppers that St...
...She concluded that her life was too complicated...
...People wanted her all the time...
...James go wrong, from that weekend in the country when she so reasonably decided she wanted her freedom...
...And even if one doesn't share her view of the decade that enabled her to prepare financially for her current freedom, one can understand her desire for what money can't buy...
...For them, unemployment or reduced employment doesn't mean free time to practice dying so much as it does time-consuming economies like canning, repairing their own cars, and sewing their own clothes...
...Where did St...
...Rachel Flick Wildavsky is a senior staff editor in the Washington bureau of The Reader's Digest...
...On some level, St...
...Also-presumably not when dead-"Make a point of connecting with your breath...
...So quit...
...James's case-and, one fears, in the cases of those under her influence-it seems to amount to little more than navel-gazing...
...Her appointment book was "the size of Nebraska...
...James, reject work because they associate it with the eighties and that decade's alleged celebration of money...
...One day, she decided to clear a weekend and go to a nice country inn...
...The body of each of the first two books consists of 100 short tips on how to do what St...
...James one of the leading figures in a nascent movement that calls itself "voluntary simplicity...
...Her only household advice that would actually save time amounts to: Be dirtier...
...James describes an experience she had while washing grapes...
...Some simplifiers even disparage work as "selling yourself for money...
...St...
...Learn, like St...
...She is proud of having abandoned her income, "fired the maid," and joined the no-nonsense, frugal folks who clean their own homes...
...Her first mistake-and one of the central errors of the movement-was to harbor too low an opinion of why most Americans labor for their money...
...No jewelry...
...Perhaps it's time to think about moving on from a friendship that no longer works for you...
...But faster than a steak and potato...
...Some, like St...
...They find it stressful...
...The rest of her advice concerns new ways readers can spend their now-abundant time...
...She and her husband disposed of many belongings, moved to a smaller house in Santa Barbara, and dedicated themselves to doing only what they wanted to do...
...Here, the tips come thick and fast...
...She asks for nothing from anyone else...
...For St...
...In fact, an afternoon spent with St...
...At first blush, there is something to respect in St...
...Courteous evasions are a weakness...
...Unfortunately, her tips on housework are often either commonplace or poor...
...She then announced to her family and friends that, henceforth, that is all they would be receiving from her...
...James abandoned the human race...
...She and her husband had "bought into the Bigger is Better and More is Better Yet philosophies of the 1980s...
...81: "Do less...
...Non-downshifters know this as "cleaning up...
...Secondhand smoke...
...James did...
...Others reject work because they connect it to exploitation of the environment-we work because our consumer culture compels us to buy things...
...If you absolutely can't help yourself, give them some object you already own and don't want...
...James: one of her solemnly displaying the new, simpler contents of her closet, and another of her seated on a rock, gazing out to sea...
...James recommends: Set aside time to laugh, first thing every morning...
...To learn one's own, here's what St...
...Some are money-savers ("Reduce your go-go entertainment")-important because, in pursuit of their freedom, her readers have quit their day jobs...
...James find it possible to adopt a superior tone toward those who strive to improve their lives with things...
...And stop reading the newspaper, with its bad news...
...James story...
...Select a couple of simple garments and buy a bunch of them, all in "muted" shades so that everything will go with everything else...
...She wanted back her freedom...
...They meet their (remaining) friends in restaurants, "dutch treat...
...James's story, as there is in the movement...
...She paused to admire them-their color and so forth...
...Accordingly, she returned home and quit her job...
...Her tale of liberation, with the 200 tips, has made St...
...Much of that coverage has focused on the St...
...St...
...Until we're tuned in to our inner selves, we're often not even aware of the adverse impact tuning in to the apparent problems of the world can have on us...
...She also states that she cut her meal-preparation time in half by "simplifying" her diet- eating no processed food, less meat, and lots of "fresh fruits, vegetables and grains...
...Simplifiers"- who also sometimes call themselves "downshifters"-are a heterogeneous group of uncertain size whose members have traded money for time...
...Wash one load of laundry every two weeks...
...Or maybe Elaine St...
...Go through every closet, every drawer, in every room, and get rid of what you don't need...
...James...
...James and her movement also suffer from some seriously misguided ideas...
...This too will be hard, as "crying is discouraged in our culture...
...Life was hectic...
...the making of those things rapes the earth...
...There, she rethought everything...
...She lives on what she has, insisting only on the freedom to make her own choices...
...When the text seems to prepare the reader to expect something about getting to know God's will, there is instead something about getting to know "what's really important" to the seeker...
...And "have you ever seen a face that was improved by makeup...
...When she quit her job, she had a nest egg that made relative idleness an option...
...This means no entertaining...
...To learn God's will was . . . well, simpler...
...When someone calls, you'll be all ready with your fib...
...One is that people want money only for foolish or vicious reasons...
...Good nutrition, probably...
...Yet most who labor seek not an appearance but security...
...Fumes the author, "We've all been trained to be polite to guests...
...Practice dying-literally, lie down and practice...
...Some of her tips are practical time-savers ("Cut your laundering chore in half...
...Still other simplifiers say frankly that they just don't like working...
...This will be hard as "we are not encouraged to laugh a lot in this culture...
...82: "Do nothing...
...She and her husband have found that it is a lot trouble...
...And, in the midst of all this, follow Tip No...
...Choose busy, patterned carpets...
...James, it's probably also a way of life to which she is better suited, if her advice on housekeeping is any indication...
...Of course, they should feel free "to pass on . . . these 'treasures' to someone else...
...More fortunate laborers seek not only security but comfort and pleasure-which are not dirty words to those who lack them...
...James recommends that you lie...
...It has sold so well that its publisher has also brought out an equally simple sequel: Inner Simplicity (Hyperion, 238 pages, $7.95), bound in an understated forest green...
...Get that woman a job...
...If your friends hate second-hand smoke as much as hers do, she recommends that you try pot luck...
...These downshifters have altered their lives, not to stop working, but to do for themselves and their families what they'd otherwise have to earn money to pay for...
...James's fundamental economy and life-changing discovery is a "program" that she calls "uncluttering...
...Curiously, in nearly every sentence in which the reader might anticipate the word "God"-or "supreme being" or "energy of the universe"-he finds instead a reference to the subject's own "intuition," "heart," or, simply, "self...
...fashionable, certainly...
...Few things complicate your life more than spending eight to ten hours a day, five to six days a week at a job you don't like," she intelligently observes...
...In those few moments I sensed my whole awareness expanding...
...Avoid not just doing for others, but giving to them as well...
...In carrying out these measures, remember that "regaining touch with the art of communication" means that you should not try to soften the impact of your new policies...
...James claims to save time with these homely measures...
...James and her husband "live a simple, peaceful life in California...
...James must know this, which is why she tends to brag about her past success...
...If you do decide to keep a few people in your life, don't do anything for them...
...However reasonable downshifting may be for some, in St...
...It has driven so many people out of restaurants...
...Don't "dress for success" but for "comfort and convenience" (which is not, as you might imagine, washable, wrinkle-free polyester but "natural fabrics...
...In doing so, she opted for less money-though, thanks to those years of greed, not no money- and more time...
...But she saves even more time by following one simple rule: Abandon everything and everybody you don't feel like dealing with...
...Draw up a list of all-purpose excuses and paste it by your phone...
...For instance, St...
...James does admit that there's one problem with this plan...
...For what purpose has St...
...Next, don't be afraid to spill human blood...
...The movement has lately received impressive media attention, running the gamut from Oprah to the Wall Street Journal...
...Others in the movement downshift to live on next to nothing...
...I felt full to the brim, and I hadn't even eaten the grapes yet...
...Another is that free time is necessarily a good thing...
...Arrange to cry every day...
...They work less than they could, earn less, and live on less- more fulfillingly, they say...
...James, to say, "'Sorry, but there is someone else I'd rather be talking to.'" Don't answer the phone...
...Only after amassing a pile to "unclutter" did St...
...Even Tip No...
...James, who recounts her story in the introduction to Simplify Your Life (Hyperion, 242 pages, $6.95...
...In her second simplicity bible, St...
Vol. 1 • January 1996 • No. 19
