Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Less is More
Embracing simplicity for a healthy planet,
a caring economy and lasting happiness
Cecile Andrews & Wanda Urbanska
Paperback - 288 pages – 5inches x 8inches
Published by New Society Publishers, September 2009
ISBN: 9780865716506
CAD 16.95
USD 16.95
Less can be more. What a strange thought, though true.
As millions of us, and not just in America and Canada, are finding ourselves waking up with less disposable income, fewer job prospects, and such, some are rediscovering the joys of growing our own food, sharing picnics with others in our community, going for hikes in the woods, or spending more time with our family. Instead of working at a job they hate, they’re starting their own enterprise that makes the world a better place. Good on them.
Our obsessive pursuit of wealth just is not working, and is making us all sick. People are afraid and anxious and we are destroying the Planet, undermining happiness, and clinging to an unsustainable economy.
Most of the global economy is nothing but a ponzy scheme that sooner or later is going to come tumbling down like a house of cards.
But there is another way. Less can be indeed be more.
Throughout history wise people have argued that we need to live more simply and that only by limiting outer wealth can we have inner wealth. “Less is More” is a compelling collection of essays by people who have been writing about Simplicity for decades – including Jim Merkel, Bill McKibben, Duane Elgin, Juliet Schor, Ernest Callenbach, John de Graaf, and others. They bring us a new vision of Less: less stuff, less work, less stress, less debt. A life with Less becomes a life of More: more time, more satisfaction, more balance, more security.
When we have too much, we savor nothing. When we choose less, we regain our life and can think and feel deeply. Ultimately, a life of less connects us with one true source of happiness: being part of a caring community. “Less is More” shows us how to turn individual change into a movement that leads to policy changes in government and corporate behavior, work hours, the wealth gap and sustainability. It will appeal to those who want to take back their lives, their planet and their well-being.
A new version of happiness, it would appear, is emerging, based on relationships and connections to each other and nature, not on all the goods found at the Mall. There are now many people who are choosing to live and work in a world where the economists – who presently dominate the national and global economy – do not matter.
The new book from Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska, “Less is More: Embracing simplicity for a healthy planet, a caring economy and lasting happiness”, is just the right tonic for these upside-down and troubled times. The book gives, though the essays by a variety of writers food for though of how to side-step stress and to learn to live and thrive, instead, in a world of abundance, where freedom and cooperation still reign.
It can be done and must be done and “Less is More” can be used as one of the guide books to set ourselves and our world on just that course.
Less is More is divided into three parts – simplicity defined, solutions, and policies – each containing short essays, analysis and inspiration from some of the leading sustainability, simplicity and community thinkers and doers.
About the Editor(s)
Cecile Andrews is a community educator, author of Circle of Simplicity and contributor to several books on living more simply and taking back our time. She and her husband are founders of Seattle's Phinney Ecovillage, a neighborhood-based sustainable community.
Wanda Urbanska is producer/host of Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska. She is author or co-author of numerous books, including Simple Living and Nothing's Too Small to Make a Difference.
© 2010
