What makes a "Good Life"
Our grandkids (the newborn being the red lump in the middle)
We like the phrase The Center for a New American Dream uses: "More of what matters." We'd add to that "Less of what doesn't."
The trick is to know what matters and what doesn't and how to then add the stuff that matters, and subtract the stuff that doesn't.
For us, at this stage in our lives, the answer to the first question is easy: our grandchildren and other living things. We're still exploring what doesn't matter, but it certainly includes a lot of the "stuff" we've acquired over the years.
Being immersed in our increasingly commercialized society—for many of us, growing up in it—makes it difficult to step back and realize that much of it (or even most of it?) isn't all that meaningful anyway. Our ad-fueled materialistic culture promotes superficial living.
Our goal is to have a high quality of life as opposed to what has become in the US the usual goal of a high standard of living.
What is a high quality of life?
It's easy to know what a high standard of living is: big houses, fancy cars, closets full of clothes etc. etc. etc.
But what is a high quality of life? The details will vary for each person, but some of the common threads we've thought about are
- Health including aging well
- Simplicity
- Time
- Quietness
- Community including new ideas about collaboration
Finally, we'll evaluate "our good life" and have it intersects with our green life.