Pure and Simple Every time

Simplifying my life has had an unexpected side-effect. I should have thought it through; logically, I could have predicted this. When you simplify, you focus more on what remains. This is the attraction of minimalism – there are so few objects in the room that each one stands out all the more. The effect of simplifying is to intensify, to concentrate, what remains. To make what remains stand out, shorn of extraneous embellishments and complications – purified.

And maybe that’s why minimalist philosophies go on about “living in the moment” – because when you take away the past and the future, and all the added complications that go with memory and anticipation – what’s left is enhanced, focussed, concentrated and somehow pure. And however unfamiliar it may feel, I find I like the intensity of that. 

Flow

There is a principle, in various Eastern philosophies as well as martial arts, often credited (by the West) to Bruce Lee: Be Like Water. It’s not about hard or soft, but about adaptability, and the acceptance of change. Water takes the shape of its container, it runs down the path of least resistance – water adapts. The natural state of life is change, and as much as it scares most people, we need to learn to live with it. To deal with it, to at least attempt to embrace it. The problem is, we’re so busy filling our hours with appointments and to-do lists and strictly defined goals and deadlines, the idea of any unexpected developments is terrifying. It’ll throw our whole day off plan. If my boiler breaks down and floods my house and all my things are ruined? How much insurance and work and time will it take to repair and replace everythign as it was? The Eastern philosophies that expoudn the Be Like Water principle tend to promote minimalism as an ideal lifestyle – the promote having enough, and no more or no less. The idea behind it is the chill-out principle. On holiday, on weekends, we can breathe, and do nothing or whatever takes our fancy. We can chill. We can experience what the Scandinavians call hygge (which doesn’t really translate, but expresses a kind of combination of chilling + cosiness + camaraderie better lived than explained). If we live simply enough, not bogged down with extraneous possessions and commitments, the idea is that we will be more relaxed and more able to adapt, and just go with the flow.

Not Worth The Jail Time

I lack patience. The older I get, the less patience I possess and the shorter my attention span seems to get. Traffic lights, pedestrians, the car in front of me, indecisive shoppers, disorientated tourists – I am not good at waiting. I never really have been. But it’s not worth the trouble it would cause to lose my cool every time I have to delay gratification. It’s not socially acceptable to scream and swear at every red light, every pedestrian, tourist, shopper, every small delay or obstacle. So all that’s left is to take a deep breath, count to ten, consider the repercussions of possibly taking a little longer to do something than I’d ideally like to take. Those consequences are seldom serious, seldom life- or even job-threatening, seldom significant enough to register on the grander scale of things that will still make my blood boil tomorrow, that really: losing my temper and murdering the cause of my frustration? Not worth the jail time. (Assume meditative pose and repeat until smiling).

The second best time

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ~Chinese Proverb

We live so fast in these modern cities. Technological progress no longer marches, it sprints. Any new computer development has a half-life of six months before it’s obsolete. And all of it is geared toward giving us instant gratification: fast food, broadband, microwaves, smart phones, IM. Reality television, talent shows like X Factor. Andy Warhol may have talked about 15 minutes of fame, but we seem to have taken that as the length of time required to achieve fame and fortune. Meanwhile we know that anything we do achieve so instantly, doesn’t last.

What matters is track record, is the ability to achieve results over and over again. Instant gratification culture has left us with an overdose of one-hit-wonders and flashes in the pan. Is it any wonder we’re starting to set more store by track record again? It’s a slow, subtle, almost undetectable shift, but it’s there: in the growing Slow Food movement, in the downsizing trend, even in the Green movement. Some people are starting to realise that we can’t always greenhouse everything, and nor should we.

Crops take time to grow, even with fertilisers, irrigation, pesticides and GM seeds. Quality takes time to create – we all know we make more mistakes, do a shoddier job when we rush things. So why do we, perpetually, feel the need to rush? If enough of us opt out of this incomprehensible “need for speed” the dominant paradigm will shift, change down a couple of gears and we can enjoy the scenery again, knowing that we will still reach the destination, just with richer memories of the ride.