On Downsizing
Glenn Beck recently did a show in which he talked about how he and his wife had decided to downsize their lives. As a result, he said they literally cut their possessions in half, and he urged his audience to do the same. He believes it’s an important step in preparing for the bad times ahead. As has been the case with Beck so often in the past, his little talk about the efficacy of downsizing inspired me.
That there are bad times on the horizon is a given. I was writing about the probability of a runaway inflation and subsequent collapse of the foundations of American society as early as the late seventies. I was far from alone in my thinking … Harry Browne, Gary North, Jim Blanchard, and a number of other “hard-money” newsletter writers come to mind.
At the time, of course, establishment political types and the mainstream media dismissed all of us as doomsayers. When I did television shows, I think the producers and hosts saw me as a kind of novelty – sort of like a Richard Simmons in a suit and tie. They must have been thinking, “Isn’t he hysterical? The collapse of Western civilization? The next thing you know, he’ll be telling us there’s a Marxist conspiracy afoot to fundamentally transform the United States of America.”
But I digress … back to Glenn Beck and downsizing. Like most entrepreneurs, small businesspeople, writers, speakers, and other independent professionals, I’ve thrown out hundreds of thousands of letters, contracts, and other documents over the years. And in my personal life, I’ve gotten rid of countless possessions, including, all too often, items I never even got around to using.
But the way Beck talked about downsizing and simplifying your life hit me at a time in my own life, coupled with a time in world history, that motivated me to get really serious about downsizing. So, on Sunday, my wife and I went on the attack.
This time it wasn’t just the obvious stuff. It was the untouchables – the yearbook from my senior year in high school … hundreds of videotapes of programs I had taped ten, twenty, even thirty years ago … suits I hadn’t worn in fifteen years, but always assumed I would again someday … scores of hardcover copies of books I had written … and on and on it went. But after several hours of hard labor, it became clear that this would be but the first installment in a countless number of downsizing sessions to come.
It reminded me of a line from my favorite movie (actually, a miniseries), The Thorn Birds. The movie centers around Drogheda, a large sheep station in the Australian outback, beginning in the 1920s. Drogheda is owned by an elderly and very wealthy widow named Mary Carson (played by Barbara Stanwyck).
In one of an endless number of dramatic scenes, Mary is standing on the front porch of the main house at Drogheda with Father Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain). She is hopelessly in love with the much younger priest, and, at one point, philosophically says to him something to the effect of, “You know, a hundred years from now, no one will even remember that any of us even lived here at Drogheda.”
The reason hers was such a poignant statement is because the Clearys (Cleary being Mary’s maiden name) were such an important family, and the soap-opera-like, incestuous entanglements of the various family members at Drogheda were so alive and so real, that it was hard to imagine all of them not only being gone, but forgotten. It was a somber reminder to me of just how ephemeral life really is.
I thought about Mary Carson’s comment again as I went through hundreds of souvenirs last weekend, many from as far back as when I was in elementary school. One example that really struck me was a large spike that I had shown to my children several times over the years. At the age of ten, while playing football with the neighborhood kids, I was on the receiving end of a vicious tackle that totally severed my right femur.
As part of the ensuing surgical procedure, the doctor drilled a hole through my ankle and inserted a gigantic pin – in one side and out the other. I was laid up in the hospital for five weeks, with weighted pulleys, attached to both sides of the pin, holding my leg up in the air. For a young kid like me, it was a very big deal.
Along with tons of other junk souvenirs, I kept that pin in one of my souvenir containers for decades, because I still thought of it as a very big deal. But between Barbara Stanwyck’s remark in The Thorn Birds and Glenn Beck’s downsizing speech, for the first time I realized that, in the overall scheme of things, it was not such a big deal after all. I thought to myself, “Do you really believe that someday your children or grandchildren will look at that pin and say, ‘Wow! Just think, dad (or my grandfather) once had that pin sticking out of both sides of his ankle?’”
Honesty compelled me to admit that I didn’t believe they would ever say or think such a thing, because it wasn’t a part of their lives. Call it the Drogheda reality: Life is ephemeral, and most of what you experience is not that important to anyone else. Even the most famous among us end up having much of their “stuff” auctioned off after they die.
Bad times are coming, to be sure. Runaway inflation? Maybe. A deflationary collapse? Maybe. Both? Maybe. The truth is, no one knows. The only thing all honest, rational people (which eliminates most politicians and pundits) can agree on is that 100-200 trillion dollars in debt and unfunded liabilities must end badly. And when it does, you don’t want to be weighted down by yearbooks and surgical mementos.
Having said all this, I second Beck’s motion: Downsize!
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“I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air….Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.” …Henry David Thoreau
Personally, I support Beck’s call to dematerialize; however, once again and unsurprisingly, the primary benefit of divesting oneself of needless possessions has escaped Beck’s notice. It takes a cynosure such as Henery David Thoreau to reveal that simplicity has much more than a pecuniary benefit.
By the way, de-cluttering and dusting off the mind of needless ambitions and hypocrisies was the primary storyline of The Thorn Birds. Not sacrificing genuine love on the alter of ambition was/is the fundamental moral of the story.
Good lesson. Reminds me of a book I read close to 40 years ago. I liked it because it was both funny & useful. The author had a lot of theories, including my favorite: The Iceball Theory.
The author had read some scientist who said that in 50,000 years, Earth would be a giant iceball … so why worry about doing something dumb today? In the long term, it makes no difference.
Anyway, that’s my memory of the Iceball Theory. I still remind myself of it on a regular basis. It pretty much applies to downsizing, too.
Thanks, Robert.
rden
Talk about memories – the Ice Ball Theory brings back a lot of those. Whatever you do, don’t tell Al Gore about it. The idea that global warming, even if it really existed, is 100% guaranteed to lose would be a real bummer for him.
Well, I’ll be darned! I did not see the Glenn Beck segment of which you spoke. However, I’ve been systemically pitching, selling, and giving away many of my possessions.
I’m allowing my home to go into foreclosure and plan on purchasing an RV. Now that’s downsizing! I will have to eliminate about 90-95% of all of my earthly possessions.
I too have my high school yearbook (1965). I also have my baby bracelet from the hospital, my bronzed baby shoes, ALL of my report cards (thanks to my mother), a stupid art project from the second grade, and even the original hospital bill from my birth (to name a few).
When my mother died four years ago, I witnessed the incredible amount of “stuff” that we had to get rid of. It was then that I realized how unimportant all this “stuff” is.
As George Carlin famously stated, “A house is nothing but a place to keep your stuff. When you have too much stuff, you buy a bigger house and then buy more stuff.”
Touche’…
I have been reading “The Tortoise” since 1979 and have an autographed book. Keep up the great work.
As an ex president of a local mortgage company, I was forced by circumstances to downsize to 20% of previous amount of “stuff.”
Janis Joplin was right in that Freedom is just another word for nothinbg left to lose. The past 12 months have brought so many blessings when I am so unemcumbered with “stuff”.
Happy Thanskgiving!
Hi Robert,
I’ve admired your writing for years, especially regarding your belief in the power of the individual. As such, I find it difficult to accept that you are so willing to accept a time of lowered expectations and, illogically, cutting back on what you have to prepare for the lean times ahead.
Even if the macro-economic view shows contraction, individuals can prosper. During the Great Depression, for example, some managed to improve their lot. The same is true at any time for Americans, who despite all the screw-ups of government still live in one of the freest countries in history.
While it is true that a rising tide helps all boats, there is little danger that you personally are going to sink because you kept a copy of your high school yearbook, which even if riots broke out, would probably not be something a hood would kill you to own.
I have never been one to accumulate many personal items personally, but I am a big fan of consumerism because that has served the world well. We live in a universe of virtually unlimited resources, and based on our ability to understand exactly what we have and how to utilize it, I would even say we have expanding resources.
President Reagan understood this. Like you, I remember the late 1970s, and I owned gold then. I own some gold now, in fact, because I do think there is good reason to doubt the government to control its spending. While we all readily accept that Reagan’s embrace of Art Laffer’s Supply Side Economics made it better for entrepreneurs to become creative, it was his attitude about the greatness of America that lead to re-birth in the sense of pride of who we are as a country. Miracales unfolded.
However, the government still wasted too much money, and deficits rose despite ballooning tax revenues due to rate cuts. Reagan knew he couldn’t always get exactly his way, and he was bigger than the petty opposition.
To a large extent as a result of Reagan policies, we had some amazing breakthroughs, like computers, cell phones and video playing devices. There was incentive to make money, and some people like Bill Gates figured out how to revolutionize the way we saw the world.
America won’t shrink our way out of our problems. We will grow, as we have always grown. Yes, the far left has ruled it for the last four years, and for the six years before that, Republicans joined the spending spree that had been a proven way for Dims to stay in control of the country’s purse strings for decades. Now, I do hope the Tea Party has given them incentive to get government spending in line, but I have greater confidence in the American entrepreneur, people like a guy who couldn’t find a publisher for his book and so figured out how to sell them himself with ads in the Wall Street Journal.
The future is bright for anywone ready to put in some creative time backed with personal power. Those waiting for the government to solve their woes, curling up in the fetal position and throwing away pefectly good sutff, will get exactly what they imagine, too.
I highly recommend you watch the movie “Blast From the Past,” just to remind you that the world thus far has avoided the peril envisioned by geniuses like Paul Ehrlich and Harry Browne.
Shared
Thank you
If you’re buried under stuff, whether figuratively by having a lot of sentimental things or literally (as in the woman hoarder who died under a massive pile of things she’d kept), downsizing is simply good sense. It took that story about the dead woman, the subsequent ads for space-saver bags and storage units (keep it locked up instead of selling it or giving it to someone who could use it), and now this article to drive the point home.
I have too much stuff!
However, like you Mr. Ringer, it will take me several forays into downsizing before I’m finished. The books will be the most difficult for me to part with.
Robert,
If one takes an objective and honest look at our current shared economic situation, and one has enough experience and education to extrapolate the possible scenarios, there can be no “soft landing” or any chance of a recovery without considerable hardship and pain to the majority of the U.S. population.
Over the last 50 years or so, the American people evolved into a virtually hypnotized nation of undiscerning consumers, over eaters, and obsessively compulsive hoarders falsely believing that having an excessive amount of “stuff” would somehow equate to maintaining a sense of real security and even prestige. To do this, many people and families lived over the edge by wanting and consuming far more than they actually needed and as a result, these people lost all sense of financial equilibrium by accruing unsustainable obligations and debts.
Americans lost a grounded perspective in what was realistically important..moderation and balance. We did it on a massive scale along with voting for politicians who promised everything for everyone (always at someone in the futures expense) and as a result, these politicians ran up our national debt to wildly unsustainable heights to continue getting elected and maintain their own power.
I believe what took place was a societal cognitive dissonance where Americans continued to block out and deny the existence of the 800 pound gorilla of debt sitting in the middle of our national living rooms as it was too uncomfortable to deal with reality as it was and found it far more pleasurable to entertain the illusion that we were all prosperous, rich, and it was somehow going to continue forever. Facing the numerical and mathematical certainty of an eventual economic implosion by living in an all obsessional and illusionary fantasy due to our collectively embracing unbridled consumerism, unchecked hedonism, and by trusting too many others (all who had a stake in profiting themselves) to define what constitutes hard and foundation “reality”, has now led many of us to the point of questioning the essence of what is of real “value” and what is in essence ego, false attachments, and empty security.
From Wikipedia…
“Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions.[2] Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.”
Glenn Beck’s downsizing suggestion was to sell all unnecessary items and use the funds for food storage just in case. Though Beck says there is still hope, $203 trillion in debt negates any rational hope.
When and if conditions turn ugly one will have food to eat and memories to keep ones spirits high.
You have thrown away your memories.
donaldcarconsultant@m
No, I haven’t. I’ve kept the gems. What to keep is a judgment call for each individual. The nice thing about throwing away thousands of marginal items is that it makes it easier to see, access, and focus on the really meaningful stuff.
reseeker….would thoreau’s simplicity allow for pc’s, isp subscriptions & blog chat? also, i think he was pretty consistent – unlike some who invoke his name/words (a reference to your posts in favor of ‘regulating race hate’, etc….).
lido shuffler…..
<We live in a universe of virtually unlimited resources, and based on our ability to understand exactly what we have and how to utilize it, I would even say we have expanding resources.
resource scarcity is the foundational axiom of economics. you'll get nothing right until you understand that. lionization of such as reagan, is 180 incorrect – the plummet radically increased earnestness with his admin.
reunion,
For what it is worth, I majored in Economics, but I have most likely lived a more fulfilling life than any of my economics instructors.
As far as scarcity of resources, perhaps you should take another look at reality. In the 1800s, the London Times proclaimed the end of the industrialized world because of the coming extinction of whales, because whale oil was obviously necessary to fuel the engines of progress. A funny thing happened. Someone discoverd this black ooze in the ground could be used instead of whale oil, and big petroluem companies saved the whales. Now, people talk about how we are running out of oil, but we keep discovering more every year. Did we really have it before we knew we did? If so, why didn’t they account for it?
When they figure out how to squeeze shale oil out in a cost effective manner, we will have more usable oil than we have today. But then again, we also have improved technology including hybrids that can make that resource last longer. Even more to the point, with the quantum leaps in technology, we really could already convert most office jobs to work-from-home situations and eliminate all travel for meetings, which of course would decrease the use of oil. If we use less oil, does that make the number of years of oil supplies greater or less? Other modes of transportation and methods of power are only a dream away. I personally am waiting for the Star Trek, “Beam me up” method of getting around. It seems about as far fetched as carrying a cell phone and computer in my pocket and having a television as big as a wall on which I can play almost any movie I want at the touch of a button seemed to me fifty years ago.
Here’s a link to the story of a bet that perhaps you never heard about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon%E2%80%93Ehrlich_wager
Reunion,
Now, as in the past, you raise both challenging and thought provoking points. The “race” issue, as I recall, was one in which private property was involved. As a matter of truth, we are not too far apart on our thinking. In fact, you might be right, and I might be wrong—freedom to choose on everything I say, even hate. Yes I say, freedom to grope. fondle, molest, intimidate, objectify, bark orders, hate, and sexually assault on the private property inside the airports, or did you not hear what The TSA is free to do on “private property?”
I think that yes, Henry David would use a Blackberry, just as I do currently, all alone, up here in a very remote part of Alaska. I also believe that Henry David would be more apt to travel, not just in his own wonderful mind, but throughout the world on an airplane. Of course, once he took his first look at The TSA (aka Thugs Screening Americans aka Tyranny Strikes America) I think Thoreau would opt out of modern living entirely and move up here, a few miles from a small hamlet, and tune in by shortwave to The Alex Jones Show and join the Info-War.
Happy Thanksgiving all.
realityseeker….you started out strong, then came the banana peel. airports aren’t private property, and airlines aren’t private businesses. which is why we see no competitive offerings emphasizing the lack of all those gov trespasses you cite.
that was my point re Thoreau: he opted out of modern living – as it was then (at least temporarily – do not recall if his year in the woods was extended indefinitely…
serious question: your writing, for some time now, has had me wondering if this forum is serving as some sort of focus group for the trialing of offers…is a scribe gig in your plans?
lido shuffler…not necessarily an aspersion, but “for what it is worth” is definitely a question. do you earn your living as an economist (just curious, not suggesting that would confer authority, either…). a friend, with her u. chicago degree in econ, knows what she was taught, but she knows little to nothing about econ (she is appropriately disparaging of what she was taught, however…). and of course there all the well-known ‘economists’ at/atop the central banks of the world….
you confuse potential, which may be nearly limitless, with resources. a bird in the hand is distinguished from the two in the bush for a reason….(that is reality). otoh, human wants, if not limitless, are at least nearly so, and so a corollary to limitless resources would be that there was no such thing as econ – it would be even less useful than the proverbial male tits.
yeah, I cite Simon’s tromping of Ehrlich, too, every time a neo-Malthusian speaks to me (not that the citation, or any others, does any good convincing the gaia religionists) – but that’s a different subject…..
Good quote of Thoreau. (Limestone) One of my favorites.
I got turned off of Beck when He dissed ‘The Story of Stuff’…plus he is said to take in 23 mil a year…that poor recovering alcoholic just trying to get by.
Check this vid out…’THE MADNESS OF A LOST SOCIETY’ Brings us up to date from Thoreau’s time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOshw4kIGR4
We seldom question if more of a “good thing” is desirable for our supposed happiness in life. The question, that Voluntary Simplicity helps answer, is the question of what IS enough so we may be happy right now in the present.
A life of Voluntary Simplicity focuses our attention on the fact that “everything we own take a little piece ~ peace of us.” And in doing so, we can let go of peace and life destroying rituals and possessions and replace them with a contented, satisfied and complete life in the present moment instead of a life that revolves around the next thing to be acquired in hopes of satisfying our insatiable appetites.
I find VS to be a very important state of mind to be in. It shows which direction a person is pointed in with their life. A person suffering from an overly stressed or complicated life can be expanding the complications, freezing the complications or reducing the complications.
Do not confuse VS with the misnomer of ‘Voluntary Poverty’ VS is not about living low, it is about making choices and balanced living. You get out what you put in with VS. If you do not cut back enough on the complexities that rob you of living life, then all you have is your same complex life back that you started with. If you cut out too many complexities and are unhappy or bored, don’t worry, you can always add them back.
We suffer from no shortage of stress and complexities of living, especially if you have a family. Life gives us plenty of problems for free. You can even trade the complexities that offer no reward other than more problems for new complexities that offer rich rewards or good feelings.
I question everything and experiment with which complexities could be removed and which need to stay in order to live a balanced life. We make what we want of VS, there are no rules other than if you do not do enough you do not get any results. There are no VS police to boss you around and tell you what is right or wrong. We have to decide this for ourselves as individuals.
A lady wrote in asking if she could be into VS and still have a gold chain? Yes, we can have a gold chain, we can even have 10 gold chains if we please. Can a person have 100 gold chains and still be into VS?
No, I could not say with a straight face I was into VS and own 100 gold chains. But, the person that has scaled back from owning 1000 gold chains could definitely say they have applied VS to their lifestyle by cutting back from 1000 to 100 gold chains.
It is all relative and all up to us and what we wish to derive from our efforts at simplicity. Another fellow posted how he wanted a canoe, but his wife said he could not have one and be a VS devotee.
It is not up to others to tell us what we can have – our VS program will tell us. If the canoe would comfortably fit within a financial budget, and a person has the comfortable space required to store it and the object does not cause a person any undue harm or problems such as maintenance that they cannot upkeep, legal problems or rob them of time they cannot afford to give, I see no problem in having it.
A person wrote me and asked, “Is writing your long 5 page post really simple living?” My response was, “Yes, writing 5 pages or even 5000 pages is vastly superior to living the old, sick life that I used to live.” Critics are all around us and work to tear down programs instead of building them up. Either our efforts at simplicity or recovery will promote our peace or destroy our peace – so put peace first. Always listen to your recovery program instead of the critics – it has the final say.
Below are some definitions of VS from the book The Circle of Simplicity ~ Andrews.
“For me, voluntary simplicity is living consciously, trying to eliminate the unnecessary, the superficial clutter. It is trying to live morally and ethically in the global economy by using less.”
“I think that voluntary simplicity as living on purpose, making sure I have the time to do the things I want to do, not wishing my time away.”
“I think voluntary simplicity is being true to yourself, true to the environment. It’s finding that place for every facet of my life and defining how much is enough. For me it is spiritual.”
“It’s choosing to enhance one’s life by surrounding yourself with what really brings you fulfillment. It is defining my own standard of success and prosperity, community and fun.”
“Voluntary simplicity is balancing the realities of my life (limited economics, time and energy) with my values and implementing them into a lifestyle that is comfortable and rewarding. I think voluntary simplicity is an “art of living.” I believe it is an art to live, to be true to yourself and to be open to innovation.”
An in-depth discussion and clarification of the term “Voluntary Simplicity” by Philip Slater
All personal solutions to wealth addiction involve one form or another of what has come to be called Voluntary Simplicity. This doesn’t not necessarily mean going “back to nature” and does not mean living in poverty and discomfort, although some people may elect forms of simplicity that would be highly uncomfortable for the rest of us. Above all, it does not mean forcing yourself to give up something you really enjoy, out of some pious conviction that it’s the “right thing to do.” Voluntary Simplicity merely means trying to rid one’s life as much as possible of material clutter so as to concentrate on more important things: creativity, human survival and development, community well-being, play.
The key word in Voluntary Simplicity is “voluntary,” which means that the giving up of the material clutter is not coerced either from the outside or from the inside. As Andre Vanden Broeck observers, only those who have experienced affluence are in a position to have a “choice divorced from need.” The poor aren’t in a position to make such a choice-they are stuck with a scarcity that is neither simple nor voluntary.
Nor is Voluntary Simplicity coerced from within, for to deprive yourself out of some ideological conviction is merely to feed the Ego Mafia. The word “simplicity” may have overtones that arouse our suspicions: a vaguely puritan ring, conjuring up images of drab smocks, self-righteousness and flagellation. But if this is in the spirit in which Voluntary Simplicity is embraced the result will most certainly be noxious.
There is an old Zen story about two monks traveling together who encounter a nude woman trying to cross a stream. One of them carries her across, much to the consternation of the other. They continue in silence for a couple of hours until the second monk can stand it no longer. “How,” he asks “could you expose yourself to such temptation?” The first monk replies, “I put her down two hours ago. You’re still carrying her.”
Addiction is internal; if you experiment sincerely with Voluntary Simplicity and find yourself still thinking of money and possessions, your simplicity is a fraud and you might just as well go back to pursuing wealth until you’ve had your fill of it. To achieve its goal, Voluntary simplicity must be undertaken in the spirit, not of Puritanism or self-flagellation, but out of adventure. All adventurers throughout history have, after all, been people who abandoned comforts, possessions, love and security to seek new experiences in faraway places.
Richard Gregg, who coined the term in 1936, once complained to Gandhi that while he had no trouble giving up most things, he could not let go of his books. Gandhi told he shouldn’t try: “As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it.” He pointed out that if you give things up out of a sense of duty or self-sacrifice they continue to preoccupy you and clutter your mind. To talk of “denying oneself” is to use the language of despotism. Simplicity is an affirmation, not a denial of oneself.
It is always nice to have our own work confirmed by others that have gone before us as well as those that follow us. Many years ago I coined the phrase “Everything you own takes a little piece ~ peace of you.” A couple years ago I came across Richard Gregg’s original work on Voluntary Simplicity penned in 1936 and this is what he said on the subject of peace disturbance or as he termed it “SIMPLICITY A KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE”.
Taken from the original work:
Pendle Hill Essays Number Three
THE VALUE OF VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
RICHARD B. GREGG
Acting Director of Pendle Hill 1935-36
Chapter X. SIMPLICITY A KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE
There is one further value to simplicity. It may be regarded as a mode of psychological hygiene. Just as eating too much is harmful to the body, even though the quality of all the food eaten is excellent, so it seems that there may be a limit to the number of things or the amount of property which a person may own and yet keep himself psychologically healthy. The possession of many things and of great wealth creates so many possible choices and decisions to be made every day that it becomes a nervous strain. Often the choices have to be narrow. The Russian physiologist, Pavlov, while doing experiments on conditioned reflexes with dogs, presented one dog with the necessity of making many choices involving fine discriminations, and the dog actually had a nervous breakdown and had to be sent away for six months’ rest before he became normal again.
Subsequently, American psychologists, by similar methods, produced neuroses in sheep by requiring many repetitions of mere inhibition and action; and as inhibition is an element in all choices, they believe it was that element which may have caused the neurosis in Pavlov’s dog. Of course, people are more highly organized than dogs and are easily able to weigh more possibilities and endure more inhibitions and make more choices and nice distinctions without strain, but nevertheless making decisions is work and can be overdone.
I’ll leave you with a snip of wisdom from Thoreau from his book Walden.
“The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They had no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of hydra’s head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.”
And on another note…
Even poor recovering alcoholic Beck’s AA program touches on the VS topic, although it is not specifically called VS. Here are a couple of quotes that can be taken as their efforts at applying VS to one’s life.
……..From page 76 of the 12 & 12 of Alcoholics Anonymous……..
“The chief activator of our defects has been a self-centered fear-primarily that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded. Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state of continual disturbance and frustrations. Therefore, no peace was to be had unless we could find a means of reducing these demands.”
I cannot tell you that I have no ‘unsatisfied demands’ in my life; but, I will say that since joining the simple living moment my unsatisfied demands can now be counted on one hand, whereas in my prior life, I needed a notebook to record them all.
……..Taken from pages 122-125 of the 12 & 12 of Alcoholics Anonymous…….
“In later life he (the addict) finds that real happiness is not to be found in just trying to be a number one man, or even a first-rater in the heartbreaking struggle for money, romance, or self-importance. He learns that he can be content as long as he plays well whatever cards life deal him. He’s still ambitious, but not absurdly so, because he can now see and accept actual reality. He is willing to stay right size.”
Greed is never satisfied by attainment – it is only satisfied by contentment. This orientation of conscious thought to simplify ones life in whatever activity the individual is engaged in is the foundation of success when it comes to simple living…mindfulness of our direction in life.
Voluntary Simplicity is the tool I use to counter this desire to constantly expand my life with more complexities, stress and problems and to live within my comfortable boundaries for a serene life.