I am really attracted to the simple life. Eat local foods. Grow herbs. Cook at home. Recycle clothes. Walk instead of drive. Use passive solar if you can. Get rid of what you don't use. Don't buy what you're not going to use. Be contented with what you have. Living to stay healthy, rather than planning to get sick and counting on physicians to make you well. Stuff like that.

I like that there is so much common ground here for so many people. My conservative, canonical Christian friends find this sort of thing appealing. Also my tree hugging pals like it. My octogenarian father-in-law (maybe the smartest person I've ever known) embraces it. So does my out-of-control friend Kat. As does my cutting edge, environmentalist friend Owen. And our arty friends Keith and Annette.

The problem is that people who get into the simple life tend to see advertising as either silly, useless, or evil. So, once again, I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member. Tough being me.