It was a fun night as everyone would
expect. Simple Living awards buffet dinner and dessert. Forty people
came including three emerita winners.
The emerita winners of the Simple Living award were Charlie Starbuck, a bicycle fanatic and freelance environmental worker who has always done the gritty office and field work for food banks, urban forest projects and native restoration plantings; Zack Stewart, an environmental architect who was wearing his monthly Muni bus pass as a badge of honor; and Roger Pritchard, an investment banker who teaches people how to use their investment portfolios for a simple life. All three were wearing their award medallions and told stories of how important the honor had been.
Missing emerita winners....
Missing emerita winners were Baha-uddin Alpine, Marc Kasky and Sherman Chickering. Baha-uddin was off traveling... his love of traveling led him to create the industry standard Specialty Travel Index. Marc is down in San Diego helping set up the second urban center on disposed-of military property, similar to Fort Mason which he managed for decades. Where is Sherman?
This year's winners were asked to say
something by Bob Gnaizda. The first winner was Donna Cleveland (right) who
raised a family, then set off to live overseas and teach English. She
lives without a car, shares rooms, travels, does her art and lives
easily without a closet. Donna said of her simple living, “ (It was) something
I gleaned and extrapolated from my Aikido training. I try to live my
life according to the Zen principle of 'right time–right
place–right action.' I would say that, in order to stay conscious,
one cannot afford to clutter his/ her life and mind with too much
stuff.” 
Next was Michelle Crang (left), who is a freelance barber. Michelle house sits, takes care of pets and old people and enjoys every day with complete freedom. Michelle said, “Take only what you need. I try to leave a light footprint.”
Joan Madson was finally in town to get
her award. Joan (right) is a masseuse who has traveled the world as a guest
masseuse and has now settled in Half Moon Bay. “When I'm massaging
my life works. Things I need come to me -- things that need to come
from me, happen.”
A complete surprise to him was the
award to Alex MacDonald. Alex (left) spent years working and living with
hospice AIDs patients in the Tenderloin. Now Alex is a freelance writer and investigative reporter for several gay newspapers.
Alex was too surprised to say anything.
Finally, David Chadwick got his simple
living award. David (right) has raised a family, written several successful
books and is currently living in a barn and helping as a handyman.
David, a Zen monk of many decades, has a blog, spends time visiting
aging Zen hospice residents and creating the Suzuki roshi archives.
I said so many laudatory things about David he was too humble to add
any comments.
One guest told me after the awards: “When I came to the party I wondered how you selected the awardees. Now it is clear to me, when you know what simple living is, each of these people stands out from the crowd as a master."
(Click on a photo to enlarge it.)