I love nostalgic paintings. Ones with scenes of whitewash fences, farmers plowing fields, children playing outside a one-room schoolhouse… basically any throwback to America around the 1920′s-1930′s.
Unfortunately, this time period is now scoffed at. What most Americans learned from watching The Simple Life (with Paris Hilton and that other chick) is that living a life simpler than one you’re accustomed to is bad, bad, bad. Simple living was mocked and given a bad name for the duration of the show.
But where are these Hollywood actresses now who had the much “better” life? One of them looks like she has an eating disorder, the other in-and-out of jail. Hrm.
I recently spent a week in Mexico building a house for an impoverished community. One of the most amazing things about this particular community is that even though they had nothing compared to most Americans, they were content with what little they had. Even stranger was the fact that most of the locals were happier than most Americans I know.
So don’t disregard living simply. Now this doesn’t have to mean giving all of your personal belongings away and joining a bunch of monks on a mountain. The key is to zero in on what’s really important, and leave all that useless clutter (both physical and mental) behind.
If you’re needing a breath of fresh air and a place to whet your appetite for simpler living, here are a few resources to check out.
Ever wonder why painters like Norman Rockwell are so popular, even today? Because people long for a time when things were much simpler. You wouldn’t hang a painting of a guy multitasking at a desk on your family room wall, would you?
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