This is no longer just a soapbox, it has become a philosophy of life and part of a new section to our web site. Our everyday actions are changed by thinking about how these actions affect our lives. The ideas that follow still influence us, but it is not just about living simply. It is about doing justice in our world. See the link above for more information. The info below still applies, but it is only a part.
Deb cutting Jon's hair. This is a good bonding experience and a way to live simply.
The Idea
For those of you who know us well, it should come as no surprise that we have passionate opinions about issues and like to share them with people. This page is devoted to our current soapbox of the month (or week or however often we get around to updating things). Please let us know what you think.
Our current idea is to live more simply. This past spring (2001), we participated in a Lenten Bible Study with our church. The book that we discussed was called Simple Living, Compassionate Life. It's an awesome read - we loved it and have dramatically changed our "living" since we read it. Some of our changes include: composting, riding our bikes as much as possible, buying less "things", and purchasing our groceries from farmer's markets. These changes are exciting for us but as you will soon find out, they have not always been easy to achieve.
The Reality
We live in an second floor apartment with no extra space let alone grass or a yard. This has made composting a little more difficult. However, benefits of community living allowed us to overcome this obstacle. Our good friends Maria and Doug Rooks have graciously allowed us to bring them our compost; they even bought us our compost pail. So, we keep it under the sink in our kitchen and then bring it over to the Rooks' backyard when it gets full. We are still trying to find a way to put the compost pail on our bikes without it spilling.
Biking is also difficult at times. Since Jon works in Grand Rapids (a 45 minute drive from Holland), biking is not much of a daily option for him. Deb, however, lives close to her school and bikes there (with her books and grading strapped on a rack) as much as she can. Aside from our jobs, we bike to church, to friends' houses, the video store, the library, and occasionally to the grocery store (although this is hard when we buy lots of stuff). We are not sure what will happen when cold and snowy weather comes. Stay tuned!
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