Living Simply

Thoreau writes of his desire to live simply, to avoid a life of "quiet desperation". It has certainly been said before that we now lead, for the most part, lives of LOUD desperation. Noisome miserable cranky frustration.

"Live simply, that others my simply live." Well... certainly I can see how destructive our frenetic materialistic culture is. But for me this misses the point. Live simply so that YOU can live.

This is something I've thought about before, of course- the wonderfullness that is "living simply". For me this is often connected to "religious" experiences, feelings of connection to the natural world, intentional communities/family, and time spent doing Nothing.

I'm thinking about it now because I found this passage in The Tao of Pooh and wanted to jump up and down and say to someone "Yes! Exactly!".

Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness. Everything has to be filled in, it seems- appointment books, hillsides, vacant lots-- but when all the spaces are filled, the Loneliness really begins. Then the Groups are joined, the Classes are signed up for, and the Gift-to-Yourself items are bought. When the Loneliness starts creeping in the door the Television Set is turned on to make it go away. But it doesn't go away. So some of us do instead, and after discarding the emptiness of the Big Congested Mess, we discover the fullness of Nothing.

For me cities are the physical site of the Big Congested Mess (Benjamin Hoff, you're a genius), and what I did last year was go away. I left the Big Congested Mess and went out to find Nothing again. Nothing is one of the most important things for me, and that's something I've felt for a long time... Why most of my most blissful moments have happened in Solitude, why I'm so obsessed with Silence as a creative force, why I believe so fiercely in Richard Louv's No Child Left Inside initiative and the idea that the best thing you can do for a child is to give them Nothing. Nothing may be the most important thing we are ever given, and the hardest to notice. Nothing cannot be found in possessions or Activities or expensive educations, and most certainly not on the internet.

If there is one thing I hope I can contribute to the world, it is Nothing. The Nothing my father gave me, the Nothing I have tried to express over and over as an artist and dancer, the Nothing I found at the Huyck Preserve.

Maybe when I do find a life partner, I will be able to give that. Not advice or jewelry or flowery declarations of undying affection, but that Nothing that means so much more. The silences of true companionship, the little nothings of lovers, the openness of a true partner. May I be wise and loving and hopeful enough to say to someone, "I have Nothing to offer you," and may that be what is wanted.