The rich and famous often annoy the rest of us by claiming – often in interviews read by fans - that the money and the fame they receive aren’t important. And they’re right. Like oxygen, recognition and money aren’t important until they’re in short supply. It’s when they’re scarce that their importance becomes apparent.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the freedom of scarcity, of having enough and no more. But that’s the trick – to have enough. More is unnecessary, but less is stressful. The choice to make do with fewer things is a difficult one when we’re constantly bombarded by messages of abundance and endless choice – but choice is a decision, and sometimes it’s more relaxing not to have one to make. The choice is to fill life with non-material things, with experience and feeling rather than objects and mile-long task lists for acquiring yet more things.
The choice is not to try to make do with less than we actually need to live comfortably – cutting down too much will only leave me stressed and worried and struggling. Which is hardly the objective. But to have just enough, and not be encumbered by extraneous bits and pieces – oh, that would feel lighter, and free…
Pity the process of establishing what is just enough and no more is such a trial and error one.
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