Could You Live with Less?
你可以简朴地生活吗？
Stephanie Mills
斯蒂芬妮·米尔斯
Compared to the lifestyle of the average person on Earth, my days are lush with comfort and convenience: I have a warm home, enough to eat, my own car. But compared to most of my urban American contemporaries, I live a monastically simple life.
和地球上普通人的生活方式相比，我的日子过得既舒适又便利，算得上奢华：我有一个温暖的家，有足够的食物，有自己的车。但是和大多数住在城市中的同时代的美国人相比，我则过着如僧侣般简朴的生活。
Since 1984 I've made my home outside a small city in Lower Michigan, where the winters are snowy but not severely cold. My snug 720-square-foot house is solar- and wood-heated. No thermostat, just a cast-iron stove. There's electric lighting, indoor plumbing, a tankless water heater, a secondhand refrigerator and range—but no microwave oven, no dishwasher,no blow-dryer, no cordless phone. My gas-sipping compact station wagon has 140,000 miles on it and spreading patches of rust. I've never owned a television set. My home entertainment center consists of a thousand books, a CDless stereo system, a picture window and two cats.
从1984年起，我在下密歇根的一个小城外安了家，那里冬天会下雪，但并不是特别冷。我那个720平方英尺的房子靠太阳能和木柴取暖，温暖而又舒适。屋里没有温度自动调节器，只有一个铸铁炉子。屋里还有电灯，室内水管管道，一个即热式热水器，一个二手冰箱和炉灶——但是没有微波炉，没有洗碗机，没有吹风机，没有无线电话。我的低油耗的客货两用小汽车已经行驶了140,000英里，上面锈迹斑斑。我从未拥有过一台电视机。我家的娱乐中心包括上千本书，一个不能播放CD的立体音响系统，一个落地窗和两只猫。