song for theme #23B: Enoughness

“Living Life Simply” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “Killing Me Softly” by Gimbell and Fox / Roberta Flack

I wanted to live the good life

With love shoot for the moon

But building her dream house

Ended with pain and gloom

I didn’t want luxury

I wanted most her love

Steering my life¹ back to basics

Living sustainably

Living life simply² in my home

Minimizing consumption³

Telling the world that I care

I’d say living the good life

Is grounding ourselves in love

But with seven billion people⁴

There’s lots of push and shove

I don’t want us sufferin’

Nor trashing our small planet

Steering my life back to basics

Living sustainably

Living life simply in my home

Minimizing pollution

Telling the world that I care

Let’s teach all our children

‘Bout pain too great to bare

If we don’t respect limits

And make do with a fair share⁵

No one’s greedy excess

Should cause others great distress⁶

Easing the pain with our lifestyles

Living sustainably

Living life simply in our homes

Maximizing well being⁷

Telling the world that we share

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS     (this song is part of the author’s personal story)

1—This is a semi-autobiographical song written during the late summer of 2013.

2—Voluntary simplicity is a simple, typically environmentally sound and ecologically grounded, non-consumerist lifestyle that

      people voluntarily choose, typically for ethical, environmental or spiritual reasons.  

3—Done through paring needs to essentials, relying on one’s labor to meet certain needs, reusing consumer products, recycling

     materials, trading inefficient technologies for more efficient ones, sharing, etc.

4—Seven billion: the human population in the spring of 2012—it grows by roughly 80 million per year.

5—Fair share will make some think of Ecosharing.  This represents an environmental ethic for people to live by: their own impact

      on Earth’s biosphere should be limited to no more than their fair ecoshare.  An ecoshare is determined by assessment of human

      impact on the biosphere, computer models of its future condition, and necessary limits imposed by sustainability criteria. 

6—A 2014 Oxfam report said the world’s 85 richest people owned as much wealth as its 3.5 billion poorest!

7—This phrase will make some think of “small is beautiful” philosophy of “enoughness” popularized by E.F. Schumacher in the

      early 1970s. Appreciating both human needs and limitations, and appropriate use of technology, Schumacher questioned

      focusing on increasing GNP and economic growth.  He argued, “The aim ought to be to obtain the maximum amount of well

      being with the minimum amount of consumption.”  

Comment: An “enoughness lifestyle” can be seen as a mechanism to cope with the numerous stresses associated with a modern affluent consumption based lifestyle. Example: a life based on having “less stuff” would help cope with stress created by needing more money / working longer hours / being in debt, —all to have and store more stuff …That’s one area of stress. Others include: maintaining stuff and storing it, getting technology (associated with stuff) to work, guilt caused by all the time invested in getting / having stuff, etc.