Keeping it Simple

Some 150 years after Henry David Thoreau's two-year retreat into the Walden woods, the rapid drumbeat of technology lures more and more Americans down a glittering path that would have astounded the father of America's simplicity movement.

A raging economy has fueled sales of the latest, greatest, and fastest technological tools. And throughout America's scattered silicon capitals, computer techies have come to represent both new technology's driving force and some of its most enthusiastic consumers.

But now, some of those on the ground floor of the high-tech swirl are taking a hard look at what they really need to get by in life. And in a surprising new trend, many younger techies have become committed to simplifying, uncluttering, and focusing their lives.

It won't be easy. Electronic gadgets and appliances have become so much a way of life that 20-something software engineers can barely fathom life before personal digital assistants, pagers, cell phones, digital cable, and the comforting presence of not one, but two or three computers in their $2,000-a-month Silicon Valley condos. Nor will "simplification" likely be complete. Technology has become ingrained and, in some cases, indispensible.

But pioneers in "stuff reduction" keep popping up.

"Excessive consumption is causing a world of hurt," says Joseph Beckenbach III, a contractor and software engineer in San Jose, Calif. "For me, [voluntary simplicity] is a way of having a grand vision of how I want the future to be, and to be able to tie that to real actions that I can do from day to day."

The deliberate, contemplative movement known as voluntary simplicity may provide the necessary balance to the relentless pace of cutting-edge technology, says Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Mr. Celente, who has studied the growing impact of the movement, says that we only have to imagine the life of an average computer-industry employee to understand why simplicity might have a strong appeal.

"It's no surprise that [high-tech workers] are grasping for elements of a real life away from the grind of their wired workplaces.... When they get home, they want to escape from the wired world."

Simpler living, says writer and simplicity activist Cecile Andrews, is an age-old concept. "It is the examined life, richly lived. Simplicity isn't just about reducing consumerism, but thinking about what kinds of communities we want to create."

Strains of voluntary simplicity have emerged in every major faith tradition in the world. It found early expression in the US through the beliefs of Puritans, Quakers, and Transcendentalists.

"Simplicity was always a part of our culture, from the time of Benjamin Franklin onward. Up to and during the Depression, frugality and simplicity were respected virtues," says Celente. "But that changed after World War II, as we became a massive consumer culture."

Concepts of simplicity were revived in the late 1960s, as an aspect of the hippie counterculture. Duane Elgin's "Voluntary Simplicity" (published in 1981) and the 1987 stock-market crash, are widely credited with jump-starting the American simplicity movement.

Throughout the past two decades, the movement has generated widespread interest, resulting in national conferences, homegrown simplicity circles, a wide assortment of Web sites, journals, and books.

The Trend Research Institute has predicted that by 2005, at least 15 percent of the developed world will be practicing voluntary simplicity in some form.

Simplicity has a great deal of aesthetic appeal and brings immense emotional reward, say technologically savvy practitioners like Catherine Harper, a Microsoft test engineer and Woodinville, Wash., resident.

A self-described "geek for hire," Ms. Harper's fondness for the good things in life has earned her a bit of a workplace reputation. Among other time-intensive activities, she tends to two orchards and elaborate herb and vegetable gardens. Harper spins, weaves, and makes her own clothes.

She also cooks virtually all of her food from scratch and bakes her own breads in a wood-burning brick oven.

Page: 1 | 2