Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream

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Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream

3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 · rating details · 489 ratings · 127 reviews

Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living o...more

Paperback, 296 pages

Published May 4th 2010 by New World Library (first published January 1st 2010)

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Aug 23, 2010 Ancient rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pop-non-fiction

Should be titled Couscous for the Enviro-Conscious, Culturally Enlightened Liberal's Soul.

Meh. I wanted a book about what real twelve-by-twelve living is all about. This was not that book.

I don't want to cast unfair aspersions on the writing, but it reads like something that could have been manufactured by anyone using a formula designed to appeal to a certain reading demographic. Wise shaman this, Native American Wisdomkeeper that, Buddhism, blah, blah, blah.

This is one of those vague, "insp...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Diane Yannick rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm so torn about this book's rating. There were parts that I loved. Power's experience living in a twelve by twelve "house" in rural North Carolina provided many thought-provoking insights that were often beautifully shared with the reader. Then just when I was dog-earring the book and thinking I would keep it forever, he'd go on some detailed tangent in another world and time. OK, so he lead some conservation initiatives in Africa and knows lots about world policies, but why couldn't he just s...more

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May 25, 2012 David Galloway rated it 3 of 5 stars

The first third of Twelve By Twelve was enthralling. Your average progressive white male goes from being a South American aid worker to living in a 12" by 12" cabin with no electricity or running water. He remarks about the disconnect many of us feel with 21st century society, giving examples of corporate excesses such as how a local hospital closed their cafeteria and farmed out the catering to a Wendy's fast food joint.

The second and third parts of the book go into his interior struggle on wh...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

As far as I can tell, this book was prominently displayed in my favorite local bookstore in Raleigh because it largely takes place near Siler City. Otherwise, I would probably never have read it.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting exploration of a subculture close to where I lived most of my life, and of which I had been totally unaware. Powers' wonderfully descriptive metaphors and rich adjectives bring his experiences living in "Jackie's" 12' x 12' dwelling to life. The 12' x 12' is a physical...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Julianne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

My feelings toward this book fluctuated during the reading of it. I picked it up because it seemed to deal with topics I care about (environmental degradation, the evils of consumerism, sustainability, self-denial, hope, despair, confusion, simplicity, the big meanings concealed within small things), but I often found myself preoccupied with trying to decide whether I liked the author or not. He and I have a lot in common. We both read labels in the grocery store and think of urban sprawl as a m...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Erica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: environmental

Personal accounts on living off the grid, starting a small farm or generally breaking away from first world consumptive go-go lifestyles are a dime a dozen these days (see Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Farm City, The Dirty Life; Growing a Farmer; My Empire of Dirt; City Farmer; Radical Homemakers; etc. etc.). These are all great books and it’s truly heartening to see this genre blossom – I desperately want these ideas to go mainstream – but for a devoted reader one begins bumping up against the sa...more Personal accounts on living off the grid, starting a small farm or generally breaking away from first world consumptive go-go lifestyles are a dime a dozen these days (see Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Farm City, The Dirty Life; Growing a Farmer; My Empire of Dirt; City Farmer; Radical Homemakers; etc. etc.). These are all great books and it’s truly heartening to see this genre blossom – I desperately want these ideas to go mainstream – but for a devoted reader one begins bumping up against the same philosophies, the same prescriptions in every book. It can get a bit repetitive.

One certainly bumps into the oft-told noble simplicity mantra in William Powers’ Twelve by Twelve, but I decided to crack open the book because of his unique perspective as a former aid worker. Having been steeped in debates about international development for the past five years, but also having a strong interest in domestic/local efforts in sustainable living, I’m drawn to any writer who attempts to marry these two domains. That’s because there’s something traditionally incongruous about development and sustainability. Powers puts it succinctly:

"When discussing relatively “poorer” countries, we need to make a clear, explicit distinction between people living in a state of material destitution and people living healthy subsistence lifestyles. Terms like poverty and Third World mask this distinction and give license for modern professionals – of whom I’ve long been one – to undervalue, denigrate, and interfere with sustainable ways of live… roughly one-fifth of humanity has too much and is overdeveloped; another fifth has too little and is underdeveloped. Neither of these groups experiences general well-being."

Powers, then, defines developed as those in the middle, not those with so much material wealth. This is an intriguing idea.

Another element Powers mixes in is a strain of Buddhist philosophy on mindfulness and acceptance in the face of environmental and societal tragedies. I’m always waiting for that moment when a professed Buddhist outlook begins tipping the scales into cheap New Agey feel-good tripe. Powers flirts with this gray area but on the whole I found his observations to be, shall I say, consoling. I identified greatly with his attempts to break through his own despair and found his conclusions helpful. The weight of the world’s problems, the anxiety for the future, is so overwhelming that often the best one can do is live fully and gratefully in the moment. (less)

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Jun 07, 2011 Aldra rated it 1 of 5 stars

Twelve by Twelve has nothing, really, to do with living in a small structure. It's a navel gazing exercise by a well-intentioned man that just happens to occur, for a short stint, in a small structure.

Powers tackles important issues--racism, elitism, globalism (pick your ism), yet is shockingly blind to his own racism and elitism. Well, not entirely blind. He does note once or twice the way in which he is a total tool but generally only when comparing himself to someone more disturbing. I was mo...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Matt rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nobody

The concept seemed interesting enough: live in a 12x12 structure for a prolonged period of time and tell the tale of it. The problem is that Powers only spends 40 days in the structure (not nearly long enough) and spends most of the pages rambling about his worldview and why it's so much better than yours.

The narrative portions of the book are interesting, and I considered giving this book two stars because of it, but three factors prevented me from doing that.

1: Powers compares those who don't...more The concept seemed interesting enough: live in a 12x12 structure for a prolonged period of time and tell the tale of it. The problem is that Powers only spends 40 days in the structure (not nearly long enough) and spends most of the pages rambling about his worldview and why it's so much better than yours.

The narrative portions of the book are interesting, and I considered giving this book two stars because of it, but three factors prevented me from doing that.

1: Powers compares those who don't share his view of how to take care of the environment to Nazis. He compared the killing of the environment to the murder of Jews under the Third Reich. He compared those who ought to know what happens in agro-business to those who lived near Buchenwald and ought to have known of the camp's horrors. Powers did not only mention this once, but alluded to it frequently throughout the book.

2: Powers thinks he knows what is best for everyone, even people he's never met. He thinks because he went on some worthwhile and productive mission trips to developing countries that he knows what is best for them. He thinks that people in the third world already have "enough." In other words, he calls the Western world overdeveloped and the rest of the world as simply developed. He felt that his "preaching" for better clinics and schools as well as more efficient agriculture to those who desperately need these things was too much; that they already had enough and were happy as they are now. Easy to say from New York City.

3: After reading about 200 pages of Powers' angst and how he is fighting the very society that is killing this earth a la Hitler (of which you are a part), he mentions that he has a daughter in Bolivia. It turns out that he and the mother never really intended to be together and Powers goes on to say how much he misses the daughter. I certainly do not doubt Powers' love for his child, but it's hard to sympathize after 200 pages of condescending prose and Nazi comparisons.

Unless you want to be angered by writing that seemingly sets out solely to stroke the author's ego, I would recommend skipping this book. Close to the end of the book, Powers writes: "Walking the aisles of the organic Adams Market, I looked around and saw what I might become: a holier-than-thou progressive, carving an identity niche out of being so darn responsible." Unfortunately, Powers' use of the future tense here is inappropriate.(less)

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Feb 26, 2011 cat rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-in-2011

2011 Book 24/100

This would be a 2.5 star review if we had that option. I swung back and forth between loving the overall concept of simplicity taken to a 12x12 dwelling extreme (as lived by Dr. Jackie Benton, who this book REALLY should have been about) and hating the, as another Goodreader Eileen put it, "smug yet whiny pseudo-Buddhist ramblings of one of the most entitled writers I've ever read". The author is a white, middle class, privileged male who has been doing foreign aid work with NGOs...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Aspen Junge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: save-the-world

Powers is an activist getting a bit burned out from his profession of helping Joe Developing Nation when he accepts an invitation to house-sit a twelve-foot by twelve-foot off-the-grid cabin in the woods. The woman who designed and built it and its permaculture gardens used the cabin to live deliberately, with an income low enough to be untaxable so that her labor wouldn't support the defense industry. Despite the horror felt by his middle-class American parents at the prospect, Powers uses the...more

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Sep 27, 2010 See Elle Oh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, faves, enviro-food-eco, nonfic

Here's a book I'd recommend to about 95% of people who love to read. It's thought-provoking without being threatening. The prose is often beautiful and poetic. I also loved the — mostly Eastern — philosophical and spiritual undertones. It reminded me of the things I fell in love with over a decade ago, the things I studied in college, the dreams and ideals that sometimes get buried under world-weary woes and worries.

It made me think of Vonnegut (maybe because Powers drops the title of Vonnegut'...more Here's a book I'd recommend to about 95% of people who love to read. It's thought-provoking without being threatening. The prose is often beautiful and poetic. I also loved the — mostly Eastern — philosophical and spiritual undertones. It reminded me of the things I fell in love with over a decade ago, the things I studied in college, the dreams and ideals that sometimes get buried under world-weary woes and worries.

It made me think of Vonnegut (maybe because Powers drops the title of Vonnegut's A Man Without a Country a half dozen times, curiously without mentioning the work itself), Hesse's Siddhartha, my high school yearning for a more natural and slow-paced lifestyle and a lot of the Eastern thought I studied in college.

I didn't see Twelve by Twelve as a handbook or manual on sustainable living, being green or anything else, really. It's a chronicle, a journal of one person's inner and outer journey. The questions it asks are more important and interesting than the answers it gives.

Powers is very perceptive and thoughtful, and he often nails a lot of the philosophical and physical dichotomies we live with as industrialized societies, but also as humans. The rugged individualism that's so entrenched in our collective American unconscious versus the need to connect with community and be a part of something, help something/someone. But, this isn't just an issue for modern day Westerners; it's something that countless spiritual and philosophical people have struggled with for, potentially, time immemorial. And I like that Twelve by Twelve presents some stories of people who have come to merge individualism and community-ism, showing the two aren't mutually exclusive and that one doesn't have to be either an ascetic or a free-loving commune-dweller to enjoy life and make an impact. It's possible to be individualistic and also work toward a greater good. (Take that, Tea Baggers!)

This isn't to say I didn't have any problems with the book. It can get a little gushy at times and some of the personalities are less than rounded out, in ways that seem a bit like conscious glossing over and a bit like absence of true depth in experiences. And there are some practicalities and realities that Powers doesn't attend to — like the fact that if you refuse to pay your taxes, you're not only making a chink in the war coffers, but also in important social programs that benefit the very people those like Dr. Jackie Benton worked to help (the poor, the underserved, the unheard, etc.). And nowhere does the issue of health insurance and other necessary safety nets come up in regard to any of the 12 x 12 dwellers. Again, though, Powers can get away with this because Twelve by Twelve is a memoir, not an instruction manual.

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Apr 11, 2012 Silvia Di Blasio rated it 5 of 5 stars

Don't get confused. This book is not about how to live in a small house, or about the small house movement. It is a personal book that happens to touch many social things from our values and how we have chosen to live, to the impact we have in this world.
For me, it was almost magical: almost at every chapter, I had something Powers woould say that I needed to check. The book was an invitation to re-think the way I live and the choices I made, as well as to read more books, blogs and start checki...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Tina Cipolla rated it 1 of 5 stars

I loathed this author; he came off as profoundly selfish, preachy and just plain obnoxious, and not someone I would ever want to meet or have a beer with. I find that this is the case with some author's who have an environmental focus, but there are so many great nature/environmental/natural history authors out there that I think I'm spoiled, and when I come across one like this I really get irritated.

To put it simply, this guy who is telling his own story from a 12 x 12 shed he is living in do...more

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Jul 02, 2010 Tami rated it 4 of 5 stars

William Powers was at a crossroads in his life. A long time activist, William was questioning his ability to make real change in the world. He could see himself making sacrifices and not quite holding true to himself in order to do some greater good.

Then, as sometimes happens when we are lost, he was given a unique opportunity. This opportunity came as a 12X12 foot one room shed where he lived for a time. A place built with love interwoven into the surrounding ecosystem but without the running...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Irene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-on-sustainability

This book is a memoir chronicling the time that Powers spent in a 144-square-foot cabin in the woods, somewhere in rural North Carolina. Powers' story has been compared to Thoreau's time at Walden Pond, and I agree that they are similar (although I never managed to get through Walden; I like this book a lot better). The story is more about Powers' spiritual journey than it is about, say, the challenges of living simply, but the setting and the details about Powers' neighbors made the story a lot...more

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Oct 17, 2010 Yvonne rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 15, 2010 Caren rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-nonfiction

OK, I have to admit that , although I was intrigued by the author's experiment in living in a 12x12 cabin, off the grid, and by his neighbors, who were also living lifestyles outside of the American mainstream, I was often a bit put off by his navel-gazing. What really did me in was the fact that he left his little girl, whom he loved and missed, in Bolivia, in order to come back to the USA to do all of this hand-wringing and introspective angsting. I admire that he is attempting to live his con...more

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May 08, 2013 Robert rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book was a challenge to get through for numerous reasons. The author is in search of his calling in life despite having been apparently blessed with a decent chunk of change, an excellent education, caring parents, and a decent enough track record of "White Man's Burden" style humanitarian aid. So when he stumbles upon a woman who seems happy with being a peace-loving societal drop out who offers up her 12x12 shack in rural Carolina for a month, he jumps at the chance.

He then spends about a...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

A friend sent a postcard saying, "Do yourself a favor, read this book." Okay, then it just happened to be right in front of me while searching for a book at the library. The writer is invited to use his physician friend's cabin in North Carolina while she's away so he can experience living without any modern conveniences, like she has decided to do. After finishing the book, I had mixed feelings about his whole philosophy - one minute thinking he's just an irresponsible "hippy" to thinking, he d...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Eileen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I could not bring myself to pick this up again after the first few days of endless bullshit, so my review is based totally on the first third or so of the book.

I was expecting this book to be in the "reasonable thought about the author's experience/how to reduce one's footprint in the face of American cultural expectations" line. Instead, I found the smug yet whiny pseudo-Buddhist ramblings of one of the most entitled writers I've ever read. Powers had what sounds like an excell...more Full disclosure: I could not bring myself to pick this up again after the first few days of endless bullshit, so my review is based totally on the first third or so of the book.

I was expecting this book to be in the "reasonable thought about the author's experience/how to reduce one's footprint in the face of American cultural expectations" line. Instead, I found the smug yet whiny pseudo-Buddhist ramblings of one of the most entitled writers I've ever read. Powers had what sounds like an excellent career in third world nonprofits, with ten years of supplying crucially needed medical supplies under his belt. So when he comes back to the US in the grip of an early midlife crisis, does he use his knowledge and experience to continue working for the benefit of others? Does he perhaps expand his influence by getting involved in national nonprofits, lobbying in Washington, founding his own organization?

No. Instead, he befriends a pseudonymous doctor who lives in a 12x12 house, surrounded by plants. She invites him to live in her house while she travels. Slotting her neatly into the "wise teacher" role, he comes and lives in the house, ready to be enlightened. Ok. Maybe you need some time and space to deal with your situation and decide what to do next. Fine. However, you do not need to highlight your ignorance and shallowness of mind by gaping in astonishment at everything you discover. After so much time in third world countries, how could living in a small and nontechnological space possibly be surprising? How could anyone emerge from TEN YEARS of this experience and still speak in a wholly privileged American voice? But apparently this is exactly correct.

As Powers' friends and relatives come to visit him, he shows them being converted, one by one, from astounding thoughtless ignorance to open-mouthed, Rumi-quoting marvel at the wonder and simplicity of his life. If I were any of the people in question, I would be So Angry at this depiction. Gracious me, all Americans are certainly alike! We are incapable of discovering the problems with a media/product-driven way of life without the benefit of a wise teacher. No one is at all capable of changing their lives! OF COURSE NOT.

Really? What about the teacher herself? What about the small farmers depicted in the book? They slaughter their own chickens, and you're shocked and horrified! What about the guy who keeps bees on the roof of his apartment building in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn? What about my family--we live in California, and yet we are quite happy not to own a car. What about my father-in-law, who built a 6x6 foot compost pile and a backyard full of raised beds in suburban Michigan? What about the Homegrown Evolution dudes, who farm their entire Los Angeles yard and go around rescuing feral bee swarms? What about all the families using their food stamps to shop at the NYC farmers' markets? People ARE trying to change their lives. It's not easy to change, especially considering the predominant American cultural mindset, but the subculture is already here. The US is not one big brick of homogenous people, and it never has been. By treating your audience like thoughtless, useless beings, driving around in SUVs, unaware of environmental issues or international news, you thoroughly alienate us.
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Mar 17, 2011 David M. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

William Powers took a break from his career as a globetrotting do-gooder to crash for a while in a 12′×12′ cabin in North Carolina. The cabin’s owner, a doctor and activist who is pseudonomized for the sake of her privacy in the book as “Dr. Jackie Benton,” is a war tax resister who chose the small-cabin, off-the-grid, radically simplified lifestyle as a way of both avoiding income taxes and living a life in solidarity with people worldwide who are less resource-depleting than the typical Americ...more William Powers took a break from his career as a globetrotting do-gooder to crash for a while in a 12′×12′ cabin in North Carolina. The cabin’s owner, a doctor and activist who is pseudonomized for the sake of her privacy in the book as “Dr. Jackie Benton,” is a war tax resister who chose the small-cabin, off-the-grid, radically simplified lifestyle as a way of both avoiding income taxes and living a life in solidarity with people worldwide who are less resource-depleting than the typical American.

The 12′×12′ size also falls under the line that defines the sort of habitable dwelling that, according to local laws, must pay property tax, have sewer and electricity hookups, and so forth.

Benton herself is off doing activist work around the Nevada nuclear test site, and her role in the book is mostly as a distant, inspirational guru figure — imagine a sort of ghostly Obi Wan Kenobi smiling and uttering some profound aphorism about The Force from his afterlife perch in the realm of the midichlorians.

The book is mostly about the things that William Powers thinks about as he’s living in the cabin, exploring the area, and meeting the other people in his neighborhood. He thinks about his place in the giant machine that is the global economy and what influence he has over its actions, he tries to learn how to just be in a culture that seems all about do and have, he pines for the daughter he left behind in Bolivia after one of his do-gooder jaunts, he worries, he wonders, he discovers astonishing things about human nature, he makes resolutions.

The book didn’t do much for me. It felt to me like a book too many in this genre, a sort of muzak version of Walden. It skips lightly over a broad swath of the contemporary simple living zeitgeist, pointing out the usual tourist attractions along the way, but never stops anywhere long enough to really dig in and teach us anything new. “Does our culture sometimes value production over life and alienate people to the point where mental illnesses deepen and going postal becomes routine?” You can’t just drop a question like this into a paragraph and then move on to the next thing. Either address it with the depth it deserves or admit that you’re just juggling progressive tropes and use the other end of the pencil for a while.

Maybe I’ve just read too many similar things for me to be able to see the best side of this book. If it were the first such thing I’d read, I might feel differently. (less)

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Feb 22, 2011 Linda Robinson rated it 5 of 5 stars

What an absolutely human account of being human in the wild and wacky 21st century. There are lessons on every page, which a human reader - me being one in my spare time - will forget in the next paragraph. But that, too, is human. How does one leave the shopping, bulldozing, mindless dystopian world of gimme/gimme-more, and still live sanely, without her spirit dropping out and hitchhiking to Shangri La? How can one live sustainably, off the grid, wholistically and holistically, with the stench...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Jessica Jackson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: green, healing-movement, memoirs, mindfulness, spirit

This book is beautifully written, a true exploration of how to live in this world. A look into a quiet life in a 12x12 house in the middle of a permaculture forest, but in the cool air you catch smells from a nearby chicken factory. Do you want a softer world? Philosophical, spiritual, and poetic musings about this world we live in and how to live a good and true life. I was taken in by this book. I saw myself in William's wonders and wanders, and was soothed by the peace he found.

I especially r...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. While it wasn't a how-to book for living in a 12x12 cabin off the grid, it was even better. It shared one man's evolving insights about life and our place on this earth, about the compelling need to find happiness in stuff and doing, and about the growing need for humans to buck the system and incorporate more simplicity in our lives..to slow down and appreciate the simple things that share the essence of who we are and what is really important. To stop blindly doing -...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Bonnie G. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: goddamn-hippie

Wow. I am now in a 450sq foot home and I love it. We are all burdened with too much shit, you know? I mean, I understand having backyard and space and wanting room of ones own...but I learned a lot about peace and desire and the danger of life meditating and feeling self righteous. I have leant this book to numerous people and I would be happy to lend this book to YOU if you ask! It is damanged, inky, wet from readin the bath. Yup. IN the bath YO. I bought this book as a recommendation at Antigo...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Hillary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gardening-how-to-live, nonfiction

Weaving together narrative and politics, Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream, by William Powers, will appeal to fans of authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan, and Derrick Jensen. Powers, an international humanitarian aid activist, uses his time spent alone in a twelve-foot by twelve-foot cabin in rural North Carolina to ponder the effects of industrialized living on international politics and on the world. Topics range from institutional and in...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Robin Hyman rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'll have to say this one caught me a little off guard. In the beginning I was getting put off by the self-righteous arrogance of the eco-do-gooder. But I still wanted to hear ( or should I say "read") what Mr. Powers had to say. And although I do not agree with his philosophy as a whole, there were bits and pieces I could take home with me. In the last few chapters, I felt redeemed and perhaps the author, too as he revealed his final understanding that the world is perfect as it is. We are the...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Jenneffer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finishing this book leaves me with a glow of peace and hope. It is an honest reflection of satisfaction with life; the northern developed life of stuff juxtaposed with the southern world of have nots, examining happiness, comfort and the effects of it on our environment. One appeal is the lack of preaching and condemnation. Another is accessibility of the writing. It is clear, personal, and deeply thoughtful. It surprised me to find it was not i had thought, a treatise on green living. Rather, i...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Alicia Dunlap; Jodi Hart

Here are things that I marked as I was reading:
p. 44 "Sociologists point out that American kids today can identify a thousand corporate logos but less than ten native plants and animals that live around their homes."
p. 48 Jackie's approach to living in very simple terms: see, be, do
p. 50 Use a warrior presence to be fully present in the moment.
p. 56 He reflects on his work in the Global South feeling guilty that he had been punishing people for living sustainably & came to a realization that...more Here are things that I marked as I was reading:
p. 44 "Sociologists point out that American kids today can identify a thousand corporate logos but less than ten native plants and animals that live around their homes."
p. 48 Jackie's approach to living in very simple terms: see, be, do
p. 50 Use a warrior presence to be fully present in the moment.
p. 56 He reflects on his work in the Global South feeling guilty that he had been punishing people for living sustainably & came to a realization that maybe the end result of that "help" was really trying to turn "them" into "us" who live beyond our means with too much.
p. 60 "All material possessions are subject to habituation, a waning interest with repeated uses. So the cliche that "money doesn't buy happiness" is grounded in this phenomenon, habituation." Me: I thought of my car after reading this. I remember how wowed I was when I first got it & now I just don't give much thought to it anymore!
p. 74 "For a moment, I was certain that the world would slip, inevitably, into a genetically altered, overheated place of lost uniqueness and forgotten joy." This was about how box stores have resulted in local business drying up.
p. 144 "Growth in nature happens not in a linear manner but rather through a series of pulsations, it is gentle and reaches out tentatively into the new terrain. Rumi quote: "Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings."
p. 151 "Most of the so-called impoverished beneficiaries of my programs were better off than me. That is to say, their cultures had come up with a way of living in the world that contributed more to happiness than my culture. In the Biswas-Diener survey, 96 percent of Columbians defined themselves as content with life (so darn happy) which is curious only when one equates higher material living higher levels of well-being. Most rich nations rank miles below."
p. 152 He decided that the regions he was helping were in fact developed nations & that we are an unhealthily overdeveloped nation with unwanted environmental and psychological side effects.
p. 157 Value time more than money
p. 158 Live well instead of forever striving to live better
p. 204 "We cast powerful votes for the kind of world we want to live in whenever we fish out a twenty or click BUY on the Web."
p. 206 Slow Food USA
p. 208 We exchange our life energy for money. "Do we want to spend our time and energy earning money and contributing to the market economy, or fostering creative pursuits, our relationships, and community, and contributing love?"
p. 210 Safeway has cheap prices because the costs to the environment are not included
p. 258 People should strive to live on less and closer to the earth, turning away from a life of excess(less)

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Sep 19, 2010 Joshua rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: ay10-11, hermitage, hippie

I didn't like this book as much as I wanted to. This book consists primarily of the author (an upper middle class foreign aid worker) navel gazing about the state of his life and mankinds treatment of the environment, while name-checking various sustainability "technologies" (broadly defined). It would have been a much better and informative book if the Dr. Jackie character played more of a role, or if he had interviewed the sustainable realestate developer/permaculture teacher, Bradley Jameson....more

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About William Powers

William Powers hails from Long Island, NY and has worked for over a decade in development aid and conservation in Latin America, Africa, Washington, D.C., and Native North America. From 2002 to 2004 he managed the community components of a project in the Bolivian Amazon that won a 2003 prize for environmental innovation from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His essays and commentari...more

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Books by William Powers

Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age

Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge

Whispering in the Giant's Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia's War on Globalization

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“Think how nature makes things compared to how we humans make things." We talked about how animals don't just preserve the next generation; they typically preserve the environment for the ten-thousandth generation. While human industrial processes can produce Kevlar, it takes a temperature of thousands of degrees to do it, and the fiber is pulled through sulfuric acid. In contrast, a spider makes its silk - which per gram is several times stronger than steel - at room temperature in water.” — 3 people liked it

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