m – thanks for your thoughtful comment. You’re right, all that matters is that I am happy in what I choose to do, and naysayers be danged. I also like the idea of trying to get others to see the reasoning behind my behaviors in hopes that they might be inspired to change their behavior. Alas, I know coworker M very well and I think he’s a lost cause.

I think when people comment or critique others’ personal habits that don’t affect them in any real way it is due to their own issues and isn’t really about you at all.

There are all sorts of reasons why they may react that way and I won’t claim to know why people do what they do. What I do know is that in the end it doesn’t really matter what others think of your habits and choices. What matters is that you feel good about them and it sounds like you do. And it also sounds like those comments don’t have an effect on how you feel about your choices.

I generally find it rude when people question or criticize (unsolicited) other people’s pesonal choices, but I wonder if it’s better to just let it go, or if those people actually want to learn more about your choices deep down inside.

Like, for ex., if you told them what you said here (you can obv. afford the baggies but are choosing to not be wasteful and are choosing to not throw away something that still can be used, etc. etc. etc.) if that might actually perhaps help them or lead them to make some changes in their lives. I guess what I’m saying is I wonder if people bring it up because it is so different from what they know and they are responsive to learning about it, or if it just a way to confirm to themselves that the way they do things is better and that they don’t want see why your method might be worthwhile.

I’m sort of just thinking aloud here (b/c I’ve dealt with this issue and wondered about it previously as well) but I wonder if asking if they’d like to know more about why you’ve made the choices you’ve made might actually lead some people to consider adopting the very habit they seem to astounded by initially.

For example when we lived in a studio apt. we got comments about how we could live in such a small space. I wonder if really giving a genuine explanation and had a discussion about it, if it might have led our friends to think more about the issue of space and to see how a studio apt. could be a comfortable choice for if not themselves at least for other couples. Or would they have just felt that their choices were normal while ours were strange despite our efforts to explain our choices?

I guess what I’m thinking for myself is that maybe it won’t hurt in the future to ask if the other person really wants me to explain my choices and learn about them. Rather than get annoyed, which is how I’ve felt before since I don’t see why people need to question other people’s choices that have nohting to do with them in the first place, I m ight end up being able to share info. that has a chance of possibly being informative or useful for somebody else.

(sorry so long!)