Ron Finley: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA

What Does it mean to Live Simply?

Consider two chains. One is made of thousands of intricately formed links, each but a few millimeters in length, but the total chain is many feet long. The second is made of but three links, each massive and formed by hand in a forge and welded. In total it is less than a yard long.

Both have the same purpose, but which would you rather be hanging by from a cliff?

These two chains represent two different lifestyles. The massive chain of only three links represents a lifestyle that dominated the world when my grandparents were growing up. Life was simple. Our supply chain consisted of just a few links. When my grandmother needed eggs, she went to the chicken coop. When she needed a carrot she went to the root cellar that held last summer’s bounty from her vegetable garden. When she needed water, she went to the well.

Gradually, that chain has added links, each making the chain longer. Each link was smaller because each link performed a more and more specific function, and thus, the chain became more fragile.

The links eventually became so small that no human hand could form them, so complex machines were made to do so.

For most people in the United States, their chain is so long they couldn’t even define the links. We have no idea where our eggs, carrots, water, power, or anything else comes from. More importantly, like these chains, it only takes one link to break and the whole chain fails to function.

What is it that we mean when we talk about leading a simpler life?

Certainly there are many legitimate definitions, and we are sure you will come up with your own ideas. But we will share here some explanations of what we think it is to live more simply, and why. Let’s start with the why.

Why?

Remember very recently when Super Storm Sandy blew through the East Coast of the United States? It was devastating in many ways. Or the tsunami in Japan? Or Katrina? The examples go on and on.

But what was so devastating about these natural disasters? Sure, the events themselves were horrible, and many lives were lost. But in all cases the immediate impact of the storms was just the beginning. What followed were power outages, raw sewage contaminating drinking water, non-functional transportation systems, and disrupted food supplies that went on for weeks and months long after the storms were over. In every case, most people were entirely reliant on others for survival. They were close to helpless.

The bad news is that there is nothing we can do to prevent these natural disasters. The good news is that we can make the aftereffects less impactful on our lives. And we do this by living more simply.

But before moving on to examples of what it might look like to live more simply, let’s also talk about tragedies that we can’t blame on Mother Nature.

We hear the stories too frequently: someone loses their job and immediately finds themselves concerned with losing their home and keeping food on the table.

A union goes on strike and the strikers have a tough time making ends meet and the consumers who use the product or service provided by the union find it difficult to do without.

Or gas prices go through the roof, not only increasing the price of the tank of gas you are so dependent on, but also raising the prices of the vast majority of what we buy because of their dependency on fuel and petroleum products.

Once again, there are options for lessening the impact of these unfortunate events by living more simply.

But preparing for catastrophes – both natural and human caused -- are not the only motivators for leading a simpler life. Leading a simpler life also reduces our environmental impact, can be healthier, less stressful, and even a heck of a lot of fun.

What it gets down to is that leading a complex life is to lead a life highly dependent on systems and people over which you have no control. Living a simple life doesn’t give us control over those systems and people, but it does considerably reduce our dependency on them and thus reduces the negative impact on our lives when those people or systems fail to perform properly.

In terms of environmental impact, consider two options to acquire that carrot mentioned earlier:

• A huge farm machine is made in a huge farm machinery factory using metal from overseas, plastic made from petroleum, and the factory comes from a power plant fired by a coal. The machine is hauled in a diesel-burning rig to a farm. The farmer uses this machine, once it is filled with a petroleum-based fuel, to spay a toxic chemical that he bought from a huge company that made it in another huge factory that dumps its waste into a nearby river, allegedly safely. He then uses another petroleum-fired machine to plant seeds that have been genetically engineered by a huge multi-national corporation. More chemicals are added by other machines while the carrots are growing. The carrots are eventually harvested by another huge machine, dumped into huge truck that takes them to a processing plant that cleans, sorts and packages them in plastic bags made from petroleum. Another huge truck hauls them to a huge distribution house that then hauls them in yet another huge truck to a huge grocery store where you buy them. Or…
• A farmer plants seeds that he harvested last season from his carrot harvest, fertilizes the crop with horse and chicken manure and other natural sources. He weeds mechanically, harvests the carrots into baskets and sells them at the roadside where you buy them.