I don't hear much these days about Voluntary Simplicity as a way of
living, but ten or twenty years ago it was a lifestyle that briefly held
the attention of the public mind, for some reason. If you had taken a
poll somewhere around the high point (so to speak) of the Reagan years,
you would probably have found a surge in the number of people practicing
or claiming to practice Voluntary Simplicity in reaction to that era's
legitimization of conspicuous consumption. These days most of that
reaction has faded away, so where you find people continuing to live
simply by choice, it's a better indication of character. We know a fair
number of people who really are deliberate, long-term practitioners of
simple living -- I usually think of John and Vivian Allison as the prime
examples -- and I admire these folks a lot, but of course we don't
follow their example at all. In the Brecheen household, we practice
Involuntary Simplicity: simple minds, simple ways.
