It’s Possible to Live With Less

It was so refreshing to read Christopher Hawthorne’s column praising the benefits of a small living environment (“Mini Me,” Watch This Space, Oct. 14). By contrast, it was both startling and disappointing to read the lead article in the same issue on buying second homes in Baja California (“The Baja Plunge,” by Barbara Thornburg).

Granted, there was one modest and one delightfully tiny home featured, but do second homes really need to be more than 5,000 square feet--or any home for that matter? Excessive construction negatively impacts the environment on many levels. This highlights the systemic problem with our culture: Americans need to learn to be content with less.

Barbara Helton

San Clemente