Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

JVC is founded on four core values - community, social justice, spirituality, and simple living. This fourth value, also known as simplicity, has in many ways been the most challenging for me. Sure, in some ways I have mastered financial simplicity, and now even find myself saving some of my $85 stipend each month for future months when I anticipate increased costs.

So there is financial simplicity, something that most think of when hearing about my experience. I too wonder what it means to live a simple lifestyle in more ways than material wealth... Questions originating in my Human Ecology course my senior year return. Does simple lifestyle mean buying locally grown organic produce or shopping at the Farmer Market instead of conventional standard grocery stores? Does it mean lowering one's impact on society? How is it linked with faith?

In Human Ecology, we read an excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and I must admit there was a heightened level of frustration that emerged, especially as both an economist and sociologist. For example, Kingsolver (and arguably, many of the authors we read) were not offering suggestions or solutions low income clients could financially adopt. Does it make sense for my SSI clients, receiving $661 in SSI, to spend an extra $1.00 so that they are certain a product is organic?

I must say, however, after reading a book review in the Global Citizen, an annual journal published by the Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship, I decided that perhaps I could give Kingsolver's book another try. I was surprised to find many of Kingsolver's ideas on simple living to be similar (if not the same) to the way I was raised. Just to name a few, I have included the following:

1. Eating Produce that is Locally in Season: Though California strawberries fill the produce section at Safeway, I distinctly remember my mother never buying strawberries outside the two-three week period our local Spooners Strawberry farm would have their ripe berries. Every summer, my mom would go to Spooners, sometimes daily during that entire season, to ensure we'd have more than our fill. Flat after flat, the brightest most vibrant red, most ripe, most juicy and flavorful strawberries would disappear hours after entering the Sharma family house. Spooner strawberries continue to be something our family (and city) look forward to with anticipation each year. I have to say, I agree with Kingsolver - as sad as it is to abstain from strawberries 11 months of the year, those few weeks of locally grown in-season Spooner berries are a highlight of each year.

2. Organic Farming: The term organic is a buzz-word in modern society - certified organic must be better, right? Even before it was popular, I was raised on our own home-grown organic produce from the Sharma family garden. And what's more, our summer meals were dictated by what was fresh that day, week, or month. Even today, when I come home during the summer, our meals focus around what is fresh and ready in the garden. If spinach is ready, we're having a spinach salad. if green beans are ready, that day's vegetable is green beans...

Which brings me to winter months...

3. Canning and planning for the winter: I remember summer day trips to Eastern Washington where we'd pick our tomatoes in the hot, scorching sun. Over the next few days, my mother would slave away in the kitchen washing, slicing, and canning hundreds of jars of tomatoes so that we'd have our own version of "canned tomatoes" all winter. The same was for vegetables, such as mixed vegetables, for fruits like peaches and pears, and even tuna fish. To plan for those months when blackberries would be a treat, my mother would pick blackberries during the summer, make multiple pies, and freeze them before baking them, so that come January, we could pull one out of the freezer and enjoy a taste of summer. Simple ideas such as these made us enjoy the blessings of summer all through the winter.

So perhaps Animal, Vegetable, Miracle doesn't address my low income clients, providing them a practical alternative exactly considering their income, but it isn't as revolutionary as I thought it would be when I picked up the book. In fact, in many ways, Kingsolver's experiment looks a lot like growing up at the Sharma family home.