I
read somewhere that if everyone on the planet were to live as we do in
the United States, consuming and disposing as we do, that it would take
the resources of five planets to support us.
The last time I checked, we only have one.
This suggests to me that we in the U.S. need to learn to live
differently. We must take
the warnings more seriously. It
does not serve us globally and it certainly isn’t working for us
personally to continue living as we do.
Our lives now are not better and we have to be willing to admit
that and begin to change. An
alternative to our current materialism is the voluntary
simplicity movement. It
isn’t just about living with less or taking better care of the
environment (although, it is about those things as well), but rather
about living consciously, deliberately and thoughtfully.
It is about being satisfied, rather than merely pacified, and
wanting what you have. It
is about living the good life.
© Salahub 2003 |