I live in hope.

I'm not wanting to get in a pissing contest w/ you flint, but we live on half an income so bofus can raise the kids. Well, we both sort of work at home, but she does the lions share of kid raising. When needed I'll raise my eyebrow and that mostly keeps them in line.

My buddy has a bumper sticker that says: "Live simply, so I don't have to."

unrelated to Flint, but maybe it's apropos.

We have no kids and live on two incomes so we can raise ourselves.

I try to stay out of the smoke more than I'm in the smoke.

Also, problems and details. Getting through life while enjoying it is all about sorting problems from details. Broken dishwasher: detail. Sick family member: problem.
And as my dad tells me just about every time I see him, be the person you want to become. Kind of a take off Ghandi's thing, but still good words to live by I think.

I live wrapped in fear of failure, looking for something to be passionate about and skilled at and proud of, and maybe even being able to earn a living doing that thing. I try to be open to the world when my habit is to run and hide.

I can relate to that. My instinct is not really to venture out, to avoid large gatherings of people and to take the easy path. My lifestyle is such that I have to battle that instinct on a daily basis. I have learned over the years a few tricks that help me not to disappear into my own unsociability. I used to avoid committing to things for fear I'd not want to do it, or fail at it when the time comes. Now I commit first and fear it after. I've learned to trust in my ability to rise to the challenge once absolutely have to.

I've now found the things I am passionate about, skilled at and become proud of. I hope one day to earn my living doing it.....in a sense I already am: I am on a combination of student loan and grant, so effectively i am being paid (and going into debt) to study. It's taken me a hell of a long time though. I can date the time I first found something that sparked me and got me out there to 2004. I was 32. Since then the thing that initially sparked me has faded into the backdrop and my new passion is a return to an old love: academia.

I live a simple, though somewhat hedonistic, lifestyle. I don't realy value stuff (except books) as long as I have a working version of something I don't feel a need to acquire new versions. When my tv broke I brought my portable tely down from upstairs and used that for about 6 months until someone was throwing away a telly and gave it to me. I could have afforded a telly (just) but I had a working (if small) one in my house so....

I've been wanting an i-pod for the last couple of years......but not enough to drive me out to buy one...

What I couoldn't cope with is not having a tv at all! I am a telly addict. I couldn't not have broadband.....drove me mad when I didn't.

I don't really value stuff....but I overvalue entertainment. Like I said, hedonistic.

I hear and understand, Dana. To a large extent, I'm like that too.

and -- I bought my ipod from Amazon. :)

I live faily simply. I try to be honest and real. At the end of the proverbial day, I can safely say that I was true to myself, I felt extreme happiness and overbearing sadness, I tried to be kind without losing my convictions, and never pretended to be anything that I am not (and all the faults and victories that entails.)

hehehe.... back when we lived on one income, it was because the cost of daycare exceeded mom's gross income... You do the math.

I never thought I'd live past 25 (and tried to make that happen more than once) so the fact that I'm nearing 50 and happier now than i was for the first 40 years of my life says to me that maybe I finally got it right.

The simple lifestyle philosophy and ideas on fun ways to live cheaply from Living Poor with Style have influenced my choice of guiding stars. The need to do so is mostly gone, but the sense remains. Mostly I want to leave nothing behind except footprints on the Internet. That's enough for me, I think.

We are constantly working toward further simplification. We live on one income, also. I try to make as many of our meals from scratch as possible. We limit the electronics (video games, computer and TV) for our children so they get as much real world experience as we can allow for until we can no longer determine the best way for them to spend their time. Yeah, we have a damned good life.

I live for the now and for the future.
I don't look to the past as my stepping stone, such as I don't look back on ancestry, where I came from or how I came to this point in life. My concerns, goals and visions are for the now and the later.

That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the ones who came before me and helped plant me in the position I am in, but I think what truly matters is what I am going to do now to contribute to society and in the future on this planet.

Is that a bit naive? Just wondering.

Quite the opposite, actually.

One Day at a Time.

(Don't go getting the wrong idea ... I can and will drink like a fish, but since college it's mostly for flavor, not for effect. I respect Friends of Bill W, at least the ones that are cool about it, not the assholes who have to remind you of their sobriety every 15 seconds or so. But with all the complex nonsense that goes on in my life, with the work I do, and especially in the last couple years with my mom, I find that dealing with each day in isolation, putting it to bed, and seeing what the next one brings is actually a pretty smart way of approaching life. Of course my 403(b) hemorrhages cash, but overall, I'm happy.)