Dear Getting a Life Readers:

Can it really be almost a year since we sent out the Getting a Life Report? This update has been on my list of things to do for some time but has gotten continuously reprioratized as life in the simple and slow lane continues to keep us, well, busy. This paradox was apparent recently when a reader asked me if life was still as good as we indicated in Getting a Life. After a moment of thought, I answered that it was probably even better. We continue to experience life fully within our definition of Enough and although our days always seem to be full, they are, for the most part, full of things we choose to do. That’s not to say we don’t still struggle with various issues including rising health insurance premiums, making difficult political choices, and handling extended family dynamics. But the year 2000 has continued to open our minds to new issues and interests to explore. Here’s a summary:

Mexico Perspectives

In our last letter we mentioned our trip to Mexico. We joined our daughter Kimberly, and her husband, Felipe and traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, arriving a few days before Christmas. We spent a few days on the beach near Cancun before traveling by bus to the small town where Felipe grew up and his family and many relatives still live. We were pleased to experience a non-tourist Mexico and Christmas and New Year’s Eve Mexican style. We did see considerable poverty in several places but were impressed by the non-material values of community, family and small enterprise still existing in small-town Mexico. Cycling is a major form of transportation as is walking! We were discouraged by the amount of trash everywhere (recycling seems to be unheard of) and the invasion of North American material culture, especially in the larger cities. For example, in the city of Merida, there is a large Costco which was a mirror image of the one here in Seattle and of course the ubiquitous fast food chains have left their imprint. Fortunately the traditional open air markets still seem to flourish along with the gathering of citizens in the central plaza’s of small towns and cities alike. We also enjoyed visiting several of the ancient Mayan ruins in the area and also were able to visit a modern Mayan household.

How can we afford to travel like this on our frugal budget? Travel has always been part of our “Enough” plan. We hadn’t taken a long trip since we were in Europe in ’94. Since then we have set aside money each year toward our next “big” trip. We dipped into that Travel Fund for the plane tickets after shopping around for the best fares on the Web. We traveled like the locals using bus for ground transportation and because we were visiting Felipe’s family most nights we did not have lodging expenses. Same for food. When we did have to find lodging, again, we went low budget including a couple nights in a Cabana on the beach at $20 a night.

Unitarian Project

As you know, in mid-1999, the hardback version of Getting a Life was remaindered and we were able to buy 1000 copies at a bargain price. We sold about 300 copies at our special low price by early this year. But the remaining 700 copies took a lot of space in my office and garage so after consultation with the New Road Map Foundation, we decided to donate the remaining stock. Shortly after our return from Mexico we found out that the Unitarian/Universalist Association had declared a study theme for 2000 of “Responsible Consumption as a Moral Imperative.” To enhance their study of this theme we decided to donate the remaining copies to Unitarian/Universalist Churches across the country. After some logistical problems we finally finished shipping out all 700 copies by May. We also donated about 100 of the Audiobook version of GAL.

Cycling for Sustainability

In late March and early April I joined Jimi Merkle, Erika Sherwood and Mathis Wackernagal in Victoria, BC, Canada as they cycled around doing presentations on their work for a sustainable future. Jimi and Erika have run the “Global Living Project” in eastern BC for the last several years. They have been implementing the Ecological Footprint concept which means minimizing their impact on the earth. This includes frugal living, environmentally sustainable behaviors and minimizing overall consumption. Mathis Wackernagel is the co-author of the book, The Ecological Footprint and now a director at the Re-Defining Progress organization in Oakland, CA. After several presentations in Victoria, we pedaled (and ferried) to Bellingham, Washington, then down Whidbey Island, and on to Seattle. We were happy with the general response we got at most of these presentations although it is difficult to get across a quite abstract concept in less than one hour.

ASU Women s Convention

In early May Jacque and I were asked to do two one-hour presentations on the concepts in Getting a Life in Phoenix, AZ at a convention of career women sponsored by Arizona State University. Being a women’s event, Jacque took the lead on this one and we put together a mini-workshop with a female spin on the concepts found in GAL and YMOYL. The room was packed to overflowing and the diverse audience seemed to really appreciate our message. They even sold a few books for us there!

CAMP Project

As a result of filling in for Vicki Robin at a sustainability conference in February, Jacque got involved in May in a project to integrate YMOYL and sustainable practices into the overall program of the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP) here in Seattle. CAMP is a 35 year old program for low-income folks that provides such resources as after school activities for youth, job placement for ex-cons, job training, a food-bank etc. We put together a presentation for the CAMP staff using our normal YMOYL tools such as the Fulfillment Curve, showed the video “Affluenza” and handed out copies of YMOYL and GAL. Boy did we learn a lot! The techniques that seem to always work so well with harried middle-class audiences just didn’t fly with our mostly African-American audience. Although the message of sustainability and YMOYL do apply to low-income people, we discovered that we had to, as Thoreau said, “Simplify. Simplify.” We ended up developing four newsletter type handouts that focused on the basic ideas of YMOYL and sustainability including: “The Best Things in Life are Free,” “Smart Money Basics,” “Smart Shopping” and “TV Smarts for Kids.” These were then handed out in residential areas over the summer as part of a larger program that included Energy Assistance and other resource and information available through the city and county.

The Getting a Life Report

Active promotion for Getting a Life pretty much ended in 1999. Once a book is on the market for over a year it is considered old news by publishers as new books continue to come out each quarter. That doesn’t mean we ignore promotional opportunities when they happen to come our way. We have had a few speaking opportunities in 2000 that are mentioned below. We’ve also gotten into a couple of print magazine articles. One was titled “Buying Time” published in Horizon Air’s March in flight magazine. We were also featured in the October issue of E-Company Magazine in a lengthy and quite good article with the questionable title of, “Better Living Through Austerity.” This one includes a interesting photo of us in the tradition of “American Gothic.” (Contact us if you would like copies of either of these.)

Otherwise, our promotional work has been indirect through some of the projects summarized in this newsletter and through correspondence from readers. We continue to get frequent e-mails and an occasional snail mail letter from readers. We enjoy hearing from readers and responding to questions as best we can. We hope you in turn pass along the good word about “Getting a Life” to friends and people you come in contact with. Word of mouth is still a powerful promotional tool. (We still have promo postcards too! Let us know if you could use some.)

We are often asked about numbers of sales. As mentioned in the past, this is an elusive figure at best. We only get one official sales report per year and that does not reflect copies sitting in warehouses or on bookstore shelves. The last report which counted sales through February of 2000 indicated that about 25,000 copies have been sold altogether (hardback and paperback). We don’t think this included remainder sales of the hardback (about 15,000 copies) and we don’t know how many have been sold since February. That means that there are probably at least 40,000 copies “out there” plus a couple of thousand Audiobook versions. And correspondence we get indicate people are still buying the book when they can find it. The Simple Living Network continues to promote and sell GAL at a slow but steady pace too.

Creating Our Future: The Heart, Mind and Soul of Sustainability

How’s that for a conference title? Not only was the title a mouthful, but the 5 day conference retreat in August at the Whidbey Institute was definitely a mindful experience. Three powerful women led the conference: Vicki Robin, YMOYL co-author and guru, Donella (Dana) Meadows, co-author of Limits to Growth and Beyond the Limits and Sister Miriam MacGillis, founder of Genesis Farm and proponent of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme’s The Universe Story. About 65 people attended the conference and came from around the country representing a wide range of experience and interests. It s difficult to capsulize this week in a few sentences but suffice it to say we covered a lot of ground from our place in the 15 Billion year story of the Universe to what can and should do now to achieve a sustainable planet. Not only were the speakers great, but the interaction between the participants was excellent and stimulating. We came back enthused and more optimistic about the future.

Beyond Simplicity

Does that sound like a good book title? Well, that’s the working title we’re playing around with for a possible new book. We continue to see our mission as trying to find new ways to attract people still stuck in the mainstream culture to take a look at simpler and more sustainable lifestyles. Also, to try to get people to recognize that simplifying one’s life is not and end in itself, but only a beginning to a more fulfilling and meaningful life. It’s recognizing that there could be (and is!) another path than the high-consumption, fast-track that most Americans find themselves stuck on. Stimulated by the Whidbey Conference this summer we’re in the concept stage of what another book would look like. The only thing we are sure of now is that we would not limit ourselves to the ideas of YMOYL this time. If you have ideas that you would like to see addressed, let us know!

The Home Front

We continue to try to develop our Seattle townhouse home in a sustainable way. Eventually perhaps it can be a model of what can be done on a small urban plot and about 1300 square feet of living space. Much of this centers around our garden which took another leap forward this year with two new raised growing beds and improved soil composition. Jacque completed Master Gardener training in March and experimented with new vegetables and herbs and took her first crack at canning. We enjoyed eating greens, tomatoes, potatoes, parsnips, beets etc. We now have our winter crops in the ground and will retreat to studying seed catalogues until next spring! After much planning and research I built a small deck out of sustainably harvested hardwoods from the Environmental Home Center in Seattle.

In March I built storage units for the director of the local yoga center that Jacque has been going to and in exchange got 3 months of free yoga classes. I am now a convert and attend 3-4 classes a week in addition to my regular bicycling. Jacque recently completed her second year of yoga. She negotiated a barter arrangement with the owner of the yoga studio where she cleans the studio once a week in exchange for free yoga sessions.

We continued our volunteer activities this year. I still devote most of my Wednesdays to Habitat for Humanity and Jacque helps out at a neighborhood low-income housing project in addition to her Master Gardener volunteer efforts. With the graduation from high school of my not-so-little brother Seth, I completed my 10 year stint as a Big Brother. I’m taking some time off before deciding whether to re-up with a new boy in 2001. If you subscribe to Co-op America Quarterly, you’ve also been receiving a quarterly newsletter called “Real Money.” In it you may have noticed a regular column by Jacque and Vicki Robin talking about the concepts in Your Money or Your Life. With a reduced staff and other changes at the New Road Map Foundation, we have tried to help out there too. I’ve taken on the task of responding to letters directed to Vicki and the NRMF.

Finally, our latest recommendations of books and websites for you to check out:

• Another Country by Mary Pipher. She’s one of our favorite authors and her latest book on understanding and caring for our elders is a great one.
• It’s a Meaningful Life by Bo Lozoff. If you want one, read this book.
• Center for the New American Dream: www.newdream.org. You can now download “How to Simplify the Holidays” from the Website.
• Financial Integrity Associates: www.fiassociates.org. You can find out what’s going on with other “Your Money