Back to Wikipedia “Some commentators argue that, in modernity, the cornerstone of lifestyle construction is consumption behavior, which offers the possibility to create and further individualize the self with different products or services that signal different ways of life.”
“Consumption behavior”, this fascinates me to no end. With that simple phrase I can see it all. The homes that are “Green” the homes of people from China, Mexico, Italy, England , the list goes on. Then there is the home of the person following a strong Buddhist practice. All as individual as the person and the culture they come from.
I come from a mix bag of cultures like so many Americans. My grandmother on my mothers side was 100% Croatian, my grandfather 50% English 50% Northern German. My fathers side his mother was 50% Southern German and 50% Scotch Irish; my father’s, father’s side was 100% Scotch Irish from Virginia and Tennessee.
Wrap that all together and you have culturally on my mother’s side Croatian immigrants who came over in 1900 to avoid the draft and were ranchers in Mt.View, California and Germans who went around “The Horn” to San Francisco in 1853 to be gold miners.
My father’s side, his mothers family were early Connecticut colonist and his fathers family came from Virginia to be early Tennessee inhabitants. There are a lot of contrast and cultures that influenced my parents and of course their parental style. We top all of this off with being raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and there are so many influences that it is mind boggling.
So how do we decide on a lifestyle , or does that lifestyle pick us? Is it an evolution of time and amalgamation of cultures? or a conscious decision to “Be Green”, to follow a religious path, or “To be Modern/Stylish?” I believe that we all have an inner yearning a vision of what will make us happy. Isn’t that what lifestyle is all about? Finding happiness in our life?
I have always had a desire to be connected to the earth. I keep two fronts of magazines, that I tore out long ago, on a quest to understand myself better. One image is of a woman mowing her lawn in front of a lovely Luddite home in England, she is followed by a duck and four dogs. The other is a woman wearing an Arron knit sweater with a tafetta plaid full length skirt and hiking boots. Most important to me about these images is that they remind me of what is important to me.When I get to mow or walk in our yard, with our animals in tow, the feeling that comes over me is that I am living my dream! Isn’t that what it is all about?
I have attached a photo of a clients master bedroom, this was her dream, the furniture had been her much loved Grandmother (Noni). We created this very fun bedroom using a newly woven Bark cloth.
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