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At the start of 2021, my wife, our daughter and I sat down for a family meeting to see if we could restrain our household’s consumption.
2021年初，我和妻子、女儿坐下来开了一个家庭会议，看看我们能否控制家庭的消费。
I had been drawing inspiration from a range of so-called minimalists and wanted to give it a try.
我一直在从一系列所谓的极简主义者那里汲取灵感，想试一试。
I had investigated the likes of Lauren Singer, who lived a “zero-waste lifestyle” in Brooklyn, limiting her trash of eight years to so few items that they could fit in a single mason jar.
我研究了像劳伦·辛格这样的极简主义者，她在布鲁克林过着“零垃圾的生活方式”，对她八年的垃圾进行限制，她产生的垃圾极少，可以装进一个广口玻璃罐中。
I’d read about a family of four in Los Angeles who had given up all plastics.
我读到过洛杉矶的一个四口之家放弃了所有的塑料制品。
I had learned about Lara Joanna Jarvis, a mother of two in Hampshire, England, who didn’t buy anything for a year and saved 25,000 pounds.
劳拉·乔安娜·贾维斯是两个孩子的母亲，住在英国汉普郡，她一年都没买东西，存了2.5万英镑。
“What could we do?” I said, as I opened my laptop and pulled up a Forbes article (ironic for a magazine with a “billionaire’s index”) that provided a guide to a “no buy” year.
“我们能怎么办呢?”我一边说，一边打开笔记本电脑，调出《福布斯》的一篇文章(对于一本有“亿万富翁指数”排名的杂志来说，这是一种讽刺)，这篇文章给出了一个关于一年不买东西的指南。
“How about this?” I asked.
“这个怎么样?”我问。
My then nine-year-old daughter nodded in agreement.
当时我9岁的女儿点头表示同意。
“I want to save the environment,” she said.
“我想拯救环境，”她说。
She didn’t like all the boxes that things came in.
她不喜欢装东西的盒子。
“The environment matters because that’s where animals live and the trees that are living too,” she added.
“环境很重要，因为动物和树木都生活在其中，”她补充说。
My wife eagerly subscribed to the idea.
我妻子热切地赞同这个想法。
“And I want to be less consumerist,” she said, “because sometimes you think you have joy out of things. But things don’t bring joy.”
她说：“我想少点消费主义，因为有时候你会觉得你从物品中得到了快乐。但物品不会带来快乐。”
We were off to a good start.
我们开了个好头。
There are a wide range of possible motivations for this kind of strategic living: an aesthetic sense (when people like spaces with fewer things), sustainability (driven by concerns over the environment), thrift (saving money), mindfulness (wanting to be more intentional in one’s life) and experience (when people are excited to try different lifestyles).
这种策略性生活的动机可能有很多种：美感(当人们喜欢物品较少的空间时)、可持续性(出于对环境的担忧)、节俭(省钱)、专注(想要在生活中更有意识)和体验(当人们对尝试不同的生活方式感到兴奋时)。
For my daughter, it was the environment; for my wife, mindfulness. For me, I lean toward a minimalist aesthetic.
对我女儿来说，动机是环境; 对我妻子来说，动机是专注。对我来说，我倾向于极简主义美学。
But mainly I was exhausted by endless shopping, and terrified by the possibility that our over-consumption was destroying the planet.
但最主要的是，我被无休止的购物弄得筋疲力尽，也被我们的过度消费正在摧毁地球的可能性吓坏了。
After a moment of silence, my wife reconsidered: “OK, maybe a speaker that brings out music brings out joy.”
沉默片刻后，我妻子重新考虑了一下：“好吧，也许一个能带来音乐的扬声器能带来快乐。”
