Less is More: Embracing simplicity for a healthy planet, a caring economy and lasting happiness
Edited by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska
New Society Publishers, 2009, 269 p.
reviewed by Anna Kisielewska
Less is More: Embracing simplicity for a healthy planet, a caring economy and lasting happiness edited by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska, opened my eyes to the philosophical underpinnings of the Simplicity movement advocating a simpler, less cluttered lifestyle, one where the focus is not on mindless material consumption, but rather on inner riches, connection with nature, meaningful involvement in the community and, above all, the act of making conscious choices about how we lead our lives. Leading “the examined” life, the authors contend, strips away the inessential and results in happier, more engaged individuals and healthier, safer and more environmentally-friendly communities.
Published as a collection of essays by authors from all walks of life (academics, business professionals, writers, magazine editors, community and environmental activists, members of the ministry and at least one farmer, a doctor and an architect), Less is More is far from being anti-business and anti-technology; quite the opposite, the book advocates an innovative, thoughtful and deliberate approach to how we live, work and spend our leisure time. Aimed at a middle class audience, at times it reads a tad too idealistic, but overall it presents a strong case that each of us has the power to choose to change the status quo.
Although Less is More is edited mainly for an American audience, out of the many essays and anecdotes it contains, the two that stood out for me with universal lessons came from Poland and Sweden.
In the aptly titled essay “Creating a Life You Love,” Wanda Muszynski writes with a lot of insight about the decision she made more than a decade ago to leave a life as a successful executive in the advertising industry in Canada and take a leap to live and work in Poland, the country of her parents’ birth. Growing up Canadian yet hearing stories about the distant land behind the Iron Curtain, Muszynski was always curious about Poland. While vacationing there in the mid-nineties, she discovered a vibrant society full of entrepreneurial spirit only recently freed from fifty years of communist rule and decided she wanted to be part of its exciting, uncharted transformation. She took the time to ensure she made the leap on her terms; she didn’t want to just change her geographic location, she wanted to change her life. And so she shed her overworked-executive-cog-in-the-machine self and chose to work for a family-run business in Czestochowa where she feels her achievements are much more tangible and where she takes the time to enjoy the moment, which often means travelling all over Europe for pleasure. Of course, not everyone has to travel half-way across the world to “create a life you love,” but Muszynski’s experiences in Poland certainly serve as a universal lesson in making deliberate choices and moving from an outwardly successful, yet overstressed and ultimately unsatisfying existence to a more fulfilling, meaningful and happier life.
The other lesson in Less is More that comes from across the Atlantic is from Sweden, with author Alan AtKisson introducing the readers to the concept of lagom, a Swedish word which has to do with quantity and which means neither ‘too big’ nor ‘too small,’ more than ‘enough’ but less than ‘too much,’ the most accurate translation may be ‘just the right amount.’ Swedes apply it to describe anything from the size of a room to the quantity of chocolate cake they’d like to have for dessert. While lagom, the equivalent of akurat in Polish, is highly subjective – what may be ‘just the right amount’ of chocolate cake for me may be way too much for you, for example – one can also apply the concept of lagom to wider societal issues. “What’s lagom for carbon emissions?” AtKisson questions. “Only as much as the ecological systems of the Earth can reabsorb, and no more. Lagom allows for more than enough — but it still sets limits.” (p. 104) Teaching an interesting lesson in how language influences the way we think, AtKisson manages to make us question the endless search for the best, the fastest and the most, the epitome of the American Way, and instead makes us comfortable and content with ‘just the right amount,’ a change in attitude which, if we stop to think about it, has the potential to influence many aspects of our lives, from consuming and working lagom, and not more, to spending lagom leisure time and not settling for less (with the U.S. being the only developed country not to have laws governing minimum paid vacation time, it’s certainly time that American lawmakers took notice of the concept).
Both editors of Less is More have long been involved in the Simplicity movement - Andrews is the founder of Phinney EcoVillage and Urbanska is the host/producer of the PBS series Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska - and between them they’ve authored ten books. In Less is More, they bring a varied and balanced approach and present the readers with myriad possible approaches, solutions and policy prescriptions aimed to help us, as a society, be just what the book title promises -- healthier, more caring and happier. CR
Anna Kisielewska is a graduate of Concordia University in Political Science, though she's spent most of her career in the fields of translation and subtitling. Anna attended PiTR in 2008 and is now channeling its infectious energy into the Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies, organizing events and doing outreach with university students. Anna loves travelling and reading, but most of all, she loves spending time with her three-year-old son, Julian. Write to her: anna [at] cosmopolitanreview.com
