Wherever did modern man
get the idea that more was better? Unhappy is
the corporate executive who cannot report that his company grew bigger
during the year. Chambers of commerce urge their towns to
constant growth. And individually, we hurry to acquire more and
more
possessions, to cram more and more into each day, until our lives
become like stuffed suitcases that cannot close and that bulge and
break with their loads.
Well, in every life there is much to do, a thousand fronts to respond
to, distractions like mosquitos that nip at us from every side.
There are, after all, responsibilities to carry at work, bills to pay,
a
household gadget to fix, the telephone to answer, the child's problem
to solve, the appointment to keep, the meeting to attend. Too
many voices at once to answer. And like practiced jugglers, we
are
supposed to perform all these demands skillfully. But even if we
seem to
do well at our myriad duties, they take their toll upon our inner lives.
We are fragmented, pulled apart, each demand exacting a little piece of
us until there is no still point in our turning world. We lose
our central core, our inner harmony, feeling only as if we were a mass
of
hurriedly performed functions. If we are to ever again be whole,
we must follow the advice of wise men through all the ages of time, and
that is to seek not more in our lives but less. Not to add and
add but to simplify. We lose touch with the springs that nourish
us when
we are encumbered with too many distractions, too many
possessions.
Simplify. Shed the impediments that cloud our vision.
At first, that may sound impossible. We cannot shed our jobs or
subtract a child from our family; but there are things, less important
things, we can shed. We can shed our false pride, which leads us
to own more than we need, perhaps only to impress others. We can
shed our performance in certain capacities that mean nothing to
us. We can
shed meaningless regret for past failures over which we no longer have
control and that no longer matter. We can shed guilt over the
unfinished task. We can shed anxiety for tomorrow's
responsibility. Tomorrow is not yet upon us. We can shed
physical possessions
that break and need maintenance and do not add as much as they take
from
us. We can shed activities that do not enrich us, but merely numb
our senses.
Despite so many marvelous public relations campaigns, more is not
better. A full life is often a simple one, where there is room
for purity of intention, singleness of purpose, and a settled heart.
