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WE ARE ALL AHEAD
Thursday Feb. 2, 2012
Commodity based western life, we buy and sell, trade or capitalize upon. We live in bigger homes than ever, own more than ever, yet still we have more problems than ever.
Don’t believe me. Ask a social worker, a cop, anyone – on any street corner.
It may be a shaky world of bankrupt banks and morally bankrupt societies, vagaries of economies submerging many while a few everyone hopes to continue cruising safely, steering away from the rocks, cautious to not land on the rocks . .
I am pleased to report that I made it!
Through another month, another month end, another cog on the accounting sprocket that turns inexorably . . .
Another month. Getting my house in order.
Another day of reducing, reducing, reducing . . . not just a celebration of another pound lost (perhaps swept out the door), dollar saved or item off my agenda or tossed in the trash, but simplification at the very least.
There is more, I have fewer old sweaters to launder, store or care for, fewer needless things to fetch, carry, store, care for or care about. Giving up, giving away or tossing out does not make me poorer. It makes me more free, less burdened or bound. More flexible.
My real-life facts haven’t changed that much this month over last, this year over last, but the changes in my mind-set are gargantuan. Sometimes I whimper in frustration with some part of my self-inflicted situation.
Choice made, a career fork in the road taken, a business decision poorly made or an assurance unwisely counted on. Not rehashing unforgettable mistakes as much as recalling vivid touchstone moments – of storms so difficult, burdens too heavy, too harsh.
Ubiquitously aware of pennies saved, or dollars wasted, we haves tend to think in terms of things we can waste, or hoard, or invest in ways have-nots have no time for.
We developed world folks – even at our worst moments – do not appreciate hardship, poverty or distress . . .
Hanging on to an article of clothing that’s never worn, or a worn out favourite, can only hold sentimental value . . .
Unless it is the only one you have . . .
We are not worlds apart – at home or half-way around, for wherever we are AM, someone is the same, only PM.
The poor and sweater-less are not very far away.
We can all save time . . . but why? There is no bank where we can withdraw accumulated savings.
Imagine flying in the fastest plane, from west to east, around the world at the equator around and around and around again, we could not unwind one day (but one has to wonder, as planes get faster??).
Even if we could get a day ahead, what we save on one thing, we spend . . . or waste on another.
Sky-high living offers no better view of life than shacks at dingy street’s end any better than the bottom of the proverbial barrel . . . scraping by teaches life skills.
Society-wide questing security, good life symbols of our own accomplishments expressed through buying power, or borrowing power, without regard to debt which comes due.
These are not just the worry of economists, bankers, politicians and moguls – they are just as real in mud-huts, prairie landscape or power corridors.
Whatever our station – we all whine. From time to time over some squeeze, or moments of worry, or struggle, shortfall or shortcoming.
I’ve been fortunate, no grounds for whining, but I do too.
Not in quest for excess (lost that in my 30s), but to always have a roof, heat, clothing and food in my belly. I’ve never REALLY known hardship. I’ve never spent a cold night outside, never missed a meal and never walked the earth naked (except for a certain little beach . . . ).
This quest to lighten load, reduce my needs, consume less - I’ve been separating myself from things I don’t need, and things I don’t want.
Some of this discarding is easy but, with reduction of another item, another pound of stuff, it becomes more challenging.
Keeping anything with no utilitarian value – or one we don’t use anymore, serves little purpose except to gather dust, take up space where some other thing of greater importance might sit, or just to leave the spot vacant.
Keep-things vis-à-vis don’t keep-things, not about need, but about want. Keepsake not needed is still a keepsake. I’ve realized, with each bit, each old sweater shed, truth of the cliché - not so much that we own our things, as that they own us.
We cannot get away from, or ahead of, life.
It shows up every day.
As I see it, as long as we show up too, we are all ahead.
Mark Kolke
306,164
P.S. : at Gobbler’s Nob in Punxsatawney Pennsylvania, a woodchuck/groundhog or marmot, named Phil saw his shadow, thereby requiring residents there to endure 6 more weeks of winter. Nearer to hear, Balzac Billie saw his shadow and declared we should 6 more weeks of winter without advising if it is REAL winter, or just 6 more weeks of this uncommonly mild weather we’ve been having . . . .
column written/ published from Calgary: morning walk: -6C/20F, clear and calm – and Gusta saw her shadow. We did a quick sprint around the project without dog or traffic encounters with fresh air in our lungs and visions of spring in our steps.
Comments Received:
EMPTY
Mark, We really have not met. I want to say I have enjoyed your Musings. If your ever in Hawaii....., NJM, Honolulu, HI
There is rekindled hope in your words..so good to hear..."empty" put in positive pros glorious... You need her...have you a tingle of her...just maybe you needed time to purge..clean out to make a spot for her. Interruption in you daily routine can be divine...if the interruption is soft...loving and kind. Tossing could be a wondrous time...when you begin again ..being loved back to sleep. We are creatures of companionship...punctuated with a kiss...may we both find the beginning to a story like this. SJ, Evanston, WY
LENGTH OR DEPTH
This story is your book...your series...needs more flesh...you creeped me out. Hard to do... You have touched something here...not from writer from reader...I could never kindle such emotion as this... you scare me... divine!!!! , SJ, Evanston, WY
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