"Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest."
- Peace Pilgrim (1908 - 1981) See her web site at http://www.peacepilgrim.org
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."
- Henry David Thoreau
Both authors have similar messages, though they approach the subject from diffierent angles.
Many people decry how busy they are, how they can't keep up with everything that must be done, how they lose sleep because they have so much work to do or how they can't figure out how to get off the treadwheel of the rat race. Some work 60 to 80 hours a week at their jobs, then come home to more work that needs to be addressed.
They act as if every task is of equal importance. More importantly, they refuse to give up some of those "necessities of life" to make their lives simpler. Many of those necessary things are necessary for a lifestyle, not a life.
In the rat race world, those who lead simple lives are considered to be simple, deviant, lazy or stupid.
Those who actually lead those lives that have been reduced to only what they can manage, and have free time to relax and recreate, do not see it as their responsibility to convert any of the rats to their way of thinking. They don't proselytize because they use their zeal to create new things instead of converting nearly dead ones.
Only those who have some time to do nothing have time to think, deeply and creatively.
One of the gretest problems of being part of the rat race is that you die like a rat. Be honest, how many of the rats you knew a year or two ago do you still remember today?
Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' striving to help people build lives they can manage.
Learn more at http://billallin.com
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Comments: 16
Of course to afford all this stuff you have to work more. So how happy are you if you work 60 to 80 hours a week?
Who do you suppose is teaching the parents to teach that to their children? (HINT: Who manufactures the stuff that we are persuaded with such aggressiveness to buy?)
The reason that time seems to go faster as we get older is that we adopt more responsibilities. Kids have few.
Do the math.
Linda, you may be in a minority, but I believe you are on the path to having a much better life. You didn't say it, but I will guess that you are prouder of yourself now than you have been in the past.
Thank you, Manette. The rat race is a product of societies that are based on the principles that are advocated by those who own our industries.
I am not anti-industry. However, they have adopted a rat race way of thinking that they are teaching to the rest of us. We need to teach our children, in schools, that this is not the way to have a satisfying life.
I've cut way down on tv time and I don't miss the programs at all. I have discovered some wonderful books and the lovely silence in my house after my toddler has gone to sleep (it's lovely noise while he's awake!). My life is still busy but I feel much more refreshed and alive if I read or do something creative in the evenings instead of tv watching.
Getting rid of the junk and not trying to keep up with the neighbors has left us feeling a lot more comfortable.
Jiya, reading exercises much more of the brain than watching TV. That bodes well for your future as a senior. The brain should ge better as the body begins to decline.
Marian, your practice of "we reassess on a regular basis" strikes me as excellent.
So many of us each take our different twisted trails of life, but at some point we find others as those trails cross.
It's great when we can find something in common at those times.