Letters to the Editor
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How I learned to stop worrying
And love Heather Havrilesky
Beans beans are good for your heart
The more you eat the more you fart
The more you fart the better you feel
So eat beans with every meal.
My poor bean-loving friend has the gout and can no longer eat the beans he loves as they are bad for the gout.
I've been catching Fabulous Baker Boys on cable a lot lately:
"Peas, peas, try our peas.
Our peas are a delicacy."
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The Real Problem Is That The Planet Is Overpopulated
Fact is, our current global human population is unsustainable - we need too many resources and the planet can't support all of us. What to do, what to do?
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live like a grad student
When I was in college (about 10 years ago) I remember that only the ultra-rich girls had the designer duds and $500 purses (and I went to a fancy-pants Northeastern school). The rest of us middle class folks wore whatever we found on sale at Filene's Basement, and no one aspired to those Gucci boots or designer handbag....
I now teach at a fancy large university, and I am continually amazed at how all my students are decked out in super-expensive designer wear all the time. They have blackberries and cell phones and ipods, and brand new computers, and simply regard them as things that one has to have...
It is a culture of "Me" and "I want" and "now" versus the culture of hard work and saving that got my parents out of the ghetto of Los Angeles and into a middle-class neighborhood where I was raised. My mom, who grew up poor in a Mexican-American neighborhood, struggled just to pay to get a degree from a state university, but it was that degree that gave her options in life. My parents had a nice home, a dependable car, nice clothes, but never felt like we needed "more." Because of that they were able to send me off to the best education that money could buy at the time. Because they valued that over everything else.
I've been in a grad school for a while now and have learned to make do with a monthly paycheck that is less then the average middle-class mortgage. I have watched my former classmates who work, buy, buy, buy and get themselves in debt because of the stuff they had to have. Not to say I don't have credit card debt myself, but when you are student who barely scrapes by, occasionally the dog gets sick, or you need meds that month that you didn't expect or the damn car's transmission dies. Things happen. The bad economy sucks for all.
My point being is that Heather, I get it, I get why you wrote this article. Frankly beans are a staple of my diet- you can make a pot of pinto beans and then the next day have refried beans, bean burritos, bean tostadas, bean soup... the list goes on on. But the point is, what does our culture value-- more and more stuff that never makes us happy, or an emphasis on hard work, frugality, education and family? Think about it.
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It's a Gift to be Simple
I loved your essay, Heather. With food and gas prices skyrocketing, I can identify with her shopping trips. I was fortunate enough to inheirit the frugality of my parents, who both were young adults during the Depression. I've watched my friends and neighbors buy overpriced homes and take expensive European vacations with more amusement than envy. When I heard the kind of "sky's the limit" talk on property values and the stock market, I knew we were going through another period of economic insanity ala daytrading and the dot.com bubble. I've learned to enjoy the simple things around me, like activities in our beautiful surroundings of Central Oregon. As the Cheryl Crow song says "it's not having what you want, but wanting what you've got".
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Think like an assistant professor
or his/her spouse. Educated, but poor (probably in the liberal arts).
Buy a used copy of Joan Rance Shortney's classic "How to Live on Nothing." Take it to heart.
Buy, if possible, a copy of the Berkeley Coop cookbook.
Learn the old New England motto:
Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do or Do Without.
Don't get new pets or new kids without thinking through their costs. Have the blades of the old hand lawnmower sharpened and mow late in the cool of the evening. See what the library has in regard to dvds as well as books, and what Thrift Stores have in baby clothes.
If you're used to wine at dinner, buy plonk in boxes. You can get used to it. Ditto cheaper coffee; ditto cheaper pet food. Use coupons, but only for stuff you'd buy in any event. Most coupons are for highly processed foods that you can replicate at home or buy in store brands. Try those avenues first. Toothpaste, now that's something you want a coupon for unless you can get used to baking soda.
Scour the net for cheap cleaning solutions that involve baking soda and vinegar (not necessarily together). Tear up old t-shirts for dusting cloths.
Give up the daily newspaper, use the computer for news, and get the Sunday paper to catch up and get the coupons. Combine shopping trips. Give up the gym and exercise by walking, or by buying used equipment for the basement. Not only is it cheaper, you won't have those knee replacements in your future!
Be grateful that in the US you CAN drink tap water. Do it.
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Daytrippers
I'm so broke economic vicissitudes wash right over me. I'm disabled and Medicaid only allows me $725 a month to live. From that I pay property taxes, utilities, insurance, incidentals and then, with what I have left over, food. In short, I'm in a permenant recession. And I'm not crying about it; I'm merely stating the facts so you'll understand my position.
I find things like Heather Havrilesky's articles deeply offensive and very condescending. It may be kicky and fun for her, but for the millions of us who live this everyday it's not. It's as offensive as if she sat in my wheelchair and played "cripple for a day".
What kind of a person does this? I'll leave it to Mrs. Havrilesky to examine her own behavior. But I'm sick to death of the whiny upper middle class sitting on their flabby asses and contemplating their navels and thinking they stand at the apes of creation.
As far as I'm concerned Heather Havrilesky can take a flying flip at a rolling donut.