Our interest is the Christian understanding of the simple life. The Christian teaching is by nature dialectical. The people who are supposed to be following the teaching are human beings. In the jet of air above the nozzle rides a ping-ong ball, dancing imponderably in space. Actually, the ball is caught in the balance between two opposing forces.
Gravity is at work to pull it down.
But when the ball gives way to that gravity and does come down, this brings it that much closer to the source of the air jet, which has the effect of blowing it up. Plainly, the ball is not fixed in place but can stay in place only as long as it continues dancing in and out of place. If someone were to claim that the simple life is that life which wants to go all the way with inner relationship to God and so deny the need for appropriate outward expression, that would be proof enough that the inner relationship itself lacks probity. But on the other hand, there is no sort of outward expression that, in and of itself, can be taken as proof that the inner relationship is true. There is no alternative but to keep both elements in view simultaneously.