As Thanksgiving approaches and the year draws to an end, our headlines are dominated by stories of a greed-induced economic recession that seemingly will never end, and by stories of influenza and swine flu, for which we are less than adequately prepared.

How appropriate then to combine the two storylines and reacquaint ourselves with an important book that was published in 2001 – Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John de Graaf and David Wann.

It is a book that uses the metaphor of a disease, sometimes whimsically, to discuss the very serious damage we have done to ourselves, our cultures and our planet by accepting the premises of bigger is better than smaller and more is better than less. de Graaf and Wann define affluenza as “a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”

The sequel was published just a couple of years ago – Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle – written by David Wann alone and offering real and practical solutions, ones that each of us can easily incorporate into our daily lives, to the problems outlined in the first book.

I highly recommend both books, especially if you are showing signs of fatigue from a decade that began with Enron and is coming to an end with Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers, AIG and all of their robber baron peers, and especially during this season of thanksgiving and appreciation for what we value most in life.

If you’d rather get in the mood with a good novel, you certainly can’t go wrong with anything written by Annie Proulx, Ivan Doig and Kent Haruf, to name just a few authors who write about life, love and family, the things that really matter.
And, always remember the words of Bob Dylan’s father, as told by Bob in his biography, Chronicles, reinforcing and restating what Eric Hoffer said: