Live Simply

One of my favorite companies, Patagonia, has a T-shirt with the slogan “Live Simply”. That slogan has been bouncing around inside of my head for a few months now because I think it captures my thinking on lot of issues.

I’ve long felt that we’ve all been living beyond our means. Economically, I think the ongoing financial crisis has demonstrated all too clearly that spending more than we make, taking on home mortgages higher than we can repay, and the shenanigans by many of our financial institutions, just isn’t sustainable. But it goes further than this. Environmentally we’ve been living beyond our means as well: the amount of clean air, clean water, and clean food on earth available to future generations grows less each year. In today’s NY Times, there’s a report that cites studies estimating that 1/6 of mercury falling on North American lakes is from Asia. Incinerators in Asia burn trash and the toxic fumes get carried through the atmosphere across the Pacific. The reality is that our actions have an effect on the entire planet and we’re not insulated from the actions of others. We’re all connected, like it or not.

Which brings me back to the slogan of Live Simply. In many ways, I think that the current economic crisis, while incredibly painful, has been the shock needed for many people to shift to simpler lifestyles. It was only a year or two ago that the thought of weaning people off their SUV’s or convincing people in the United States to save more of their paycheck was considered impossible. But change is here. The savings rate in the US has veered sharply from negative to positive. Conspicuous consumption is out and frugal is in.

To me Live Simply means a lot of things: driving less, biking more, consuming less, recycling more, spending less time in malls, more time in the outdoors, less time stuck in traffic, and more time with family. Living Simply also means enjoying the journey rather than surviving the rat race.

A few months ago, some of us from the office were heading across town to a Vietnamese place for dinner. Now at that time of the evening I would normally drive but on this night, we decided to all head there by bike. Our route leader took us through all these small back alleys that I’d never been through. At one point, we stopped to pump up our tires and we happened to be right in front of a hand-made chocolate shop opened by a former co-worker. Two rounds of absolutely heavenly chocolate-covered cherries later, we continued on our way. We arrived at dinner with a sheen of drizzle and sweat, but exhilarated with the journey.

Bikes are a big part of a cleaner, healthier, simpler lifestyle. And it’s great to see so many more people joining us for the ride.

- Joshua Hon, Vice President
September 2009

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