The Salwens’ initiative hasn’t gone entirely smoothly. Hannah promptly won over her parents, but her younger brother, Joe, was (reassuringly) a red-blooded American boy to whom it wasn’t intuitively obvious that life would improve by moving into a smaller house and giving money to poor people. Outvoted and outmaneuvered, Joe gamely went along.

薩文一家的行動其實也不是一帆風順的。漢娜說服了父母，但她的弟弟喬伊是一個血氣方剛的美國男孩，他始終不相信自己搬進小房子、把大把鈔票送給窮人會改善生活。最后通過家庭民主投票，以及父母姐姐的一番勸說，喬伊也只好硬著頭皮與家人站在了同一戰線上。

The Salwens also are troubled that some people are reacting negatively to their project, seeing them as sanctimonious showoffs. Or that people are protesting giving to Ghana when there are so many needy Americans.

薩文一家當然也有別的、來自外界的煩惱。有些人對于他們的計劃不以為然，認為他們只是在偽善地作秀。還有些人則抗議他們將財產資助給加納，而不是同樣有許多窮人的美國本土。

Still, they have inspired some converts. The people who sold the Salwens their new home were so impressed that they committed $100,000 to the project. And one of Hannah’s closest friends, Blaise, pledged half of her baby-sitting savings to an environmental charity.

盡管反對聲音并不少，但他們還是啟示了很多人。將小房子賣給薩文一家的房東被他們的行為所感染，于是也慷慨的捐了10萬美元給這個項目。而漢娜最好的朋友布萊斯則將她打工當保姆所賺的錢一半捐給了一個環境保護機構。

In writing the book, the Salwens say, the aim wasn’t actually to get people to sell their houses. They realize that few people are quite that nutty. Rather, the aim was to encourage people to step off the treadmill of accumulation, to define themselves by what they give as well as by what they possess.

薩文父女說，寫這本書的目的不是真的要我們都去賣房子，他們知道很少有人像他們那么瘋狂。書的出版旨在勸誡人們不要永無止盡地積累財富，鼓勵人們以一種新的方式給自己定位，不光要看你有什么，還要看你給別人什么。

“No one expects anyone to sell a house,” said Hannah, now a high school junior who hopes to become a nurse. “That’s kind of a ridiculous thing to do. For us, the house was just something we could live without. It was too big for us. Everyone has too much of something, whether it’s time, talent or treasure. Everyone does have their own half, you just have to find it.”

漢娜現在已經步入高中并夢想著當一名護士，她說：“沒人會求別人去賣房子，這種事情太過荒唐。對我們來說，大房子只是我們生活中可以放棄的一樣東西，我們沒有必要擁有那么多空間。我覺得每個人都會有些東西富余，不管是時間、天賦還是財富。每個人都可以找到自己可以放棄的那一半，只要耐心尋找，就一定能找到。”