The Simple Life: Goodbye to having it all.

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Of all those rejecting the rat race to spend more time with their families, perhaps the most famous is Peter Lynch. While the 47-year-old investment superstar was busy building the Fidelity Magellan mutual fund into a $13 billion behemoth, his youngest daughter got to be seven years old, and he felt he hardly knew her. Last spring he stunned Wall Street when he decided to give up his 14-hour workdays. With a nest egg estimated at $50 million, Lynch could well afford to quit. But many ordinary people evidently felt a connection with what he did, for he received more than 1,000 letters of support for his move. These days, while other investment managers are scanning their market data at dawn, Lynch is making school lunches. Says he: "I loved what I was doing, but I came to a conclusion, and so did some others: What in the hell are we doing this for? I don't know anyone who wished on his deathbed that he had spent more time at the office."

The stay-at-home urge, also known as "cocooning," has produced a boom of its own. Consumers spent more than $9 billion renting videotapes in 1990, up 13% from the previous year and nearly twice the $5 billion they paid to see new releases at theaters. Home entertaining is decidedly back to basics. Remember onion dip? The Mom Rule has re-emerged as America's primary meal- planning guide: if she never heard of it, don't serve it. With a couple of children in tow, mothers and fathers simply don't have time to hunt for goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes in the supermarket. Marsha Bristow Bostick fondly recalls the leisurely evenings she spent at home before her children were born, "cooking wonderful things with my husband while we sipped white wine." Now? "We're eating SpaghettiO's, fried chicken, lots of terrible-for- you casseroles covered in cheese."

Far from becoming hermits, many Americans are reaching out to strengthen their ties beyond the home. Instead of defining themselves mostly by their possessions and work, more Americans in big cities as well as small towns are getting involved with their communities. "I don't think God puts you on this earth just to make millions of dollars and ignore everyone else," says Chris Amundsen of Minneapolis, a commercial real estate expert who took a 34% pay cut when he became the chief financial officer of a nonprofit housing agency.

Lately, charitable agencies and community groups have seen an upsurge in the willingness of Americans to help the less fortunate. In 1989 citizens gave a record $114.7 billion to charitable causes across the U.S., a 10% increase from the previous year, despite the stagnating economy. Instead of exchanging Christmas presents, many have started making contributions in the names of their friends. Even more impressive, more than 98 million Americans -- about half of all adults -- volunteered their time to charitable organizations in 1989, a 23% increase from two years earlier. Voluntary efforts range from the spectacular to the simply heartwarming. In Los Angeles real estate broker Eric Broida regularly volunteers at the Union Rescue Mission, where he serves meals to the homeless. "A couple of years ago, I went down one night to help out, and it just felt right," he says. "I felt good. I've been going back ever since."

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