When we think of striving for something, it connotes a positive ambition to be or do better.  However, when that same constant striving leads to “strife,” which Websters defines as “exertion or contention for superiority,” then it kinda becomes a bit of a drag, wouldn’t you agree?  I came across a story about a guy named Jay Shafer recently.  He became tired of the strife sometimes brought on by too much striving and decided to severely downsize…to a house that is under 100 square feet.  That decision has since become somewhat of a movement and Jay a tiny house entrepreneur.  Check out his web site at tumbleweedhouses.com.  Juxtapose Shafer with time share mogul David Siegel who decided to build the largest house ever built in the U.S., modeled after the Palace of Versailles, for his former beauty queen wife.  The house still sits unfinished and is now up for sale due to the downturn in the economy.  So much for love and strife, huh?  I don’t know about you, but for me one of these two approaches seems “good” and the other, well, kinda “yucky.”  Opulence, like in the case of Siegel’s house, makes me feel a bit queasy.  Deciding to live in a tiny house in order to have more freedom from strife, and to be less negatively impactful on the environment, has much more appeal, at least for me.  I have no right to judge those who strive for the opulent life.  After all, it is “their” money, isn’t it?  But it seems to me that Siegel’s idea of good taste is more than just a tad “tacky.”  I guess it all comes down to the question of what it is that we ought to be striving for.  We teach our kids to yearn for the “good life” and to endure years of education and “pay their dues” in order to achieve the “American Dream” of a big house, big car, and fat paycheck.  But why?  As if “comfort” were the be-all and end-all to our existence.  Would it not be better to teach them to yearn to make a difference, to give away something that they are uniquely suited to give?  If you are going to go for the dough, why not set yourself up to use it to do some good in this world.  The gift of a 90,000 square foot house to the silicone injected trophy wife, just doesn’t seem to be all that, well, “sustainable”…in my humble opinion.  Shafer’s ideas of downsizing one’s existence and environmental impact by living small may seem kooky, but at the same time refreshing.  Any time someone strives to make a positive difference, the outcome is much more inspiring than when someone lavishes opulence upon themselves in their “exertion and contention for superiority”