The struggles come with how far you go in any given direction.
Food is a good example. I've always been attracted to vegetarianism. But I generally hate fruits and vegetables. So it's a bit of a struggle. Your choices as a vegetarian eating out are already pretty limited, but if you can't stand--to speak totally hypothetically of course--mushrooms or tomatoes, your choices can evaporate in any given restaurant or dining experience.
But what you can do, I decided, is just eat less meat. If you aren't able to eliminate, you can reduce.
And from that conclusion I reached another conclusion. Beyond meat, you could just eat less overall. Again, not with any aim at being "healthier," though that's a nice side benefit. The goal is shifting to being a more ascetic than consumptive person.
All that to say, if you start wading into a theology of food you can be taken into a million different directions. Most of which are wonderful and laudable. I have friends who are vegans and locavores. I have friends who raise chickens in the city, friends who keep bees, and friends who only eat "God's food."
And me? I just eat less. Snack less. Get a medium rather than a large. Don't go back for seconds. This is simpler for me.
And this applies to more than just food, this idea of less. Three big easy rules are this:
Eat lessTo be sure, these rules won't make you a Shane Claiborne or anything. These rules won't remove you from the webs of economic and industrial complicity. These rules won't make you "clean."
Buy less
Drive less
But these rules are simple to remember and easy to implement. While you can buy chickens and should research clothing factories, you can also focus on less. For many of us, less seems more practicable. Less is an asceticism for "ordinary radicals."
And maybe--if more people worked on less--less would, in the end, be more.
