Imagine that you are a space traveler. You’ve just arrived at a new planet, and your job is to learn about its various forms of life.
As you begin your observations, you quickly discover that the most populous creatures on the planet are snail-like beings with large, calcium-based shells. The snails move about in their shells, gather in groups, and then leave their shells for periods of time. But they always come back before they do any significant movement overland. Furthermore, since the atmosphere slowly degrades their shells, some of the snails spend all their time mining calcium, and all the other snails then come to the miners and trade for more calcium with which to upkeep their shells. Most of the snails spend the majority of their lives attempting to save up enough things to trade for more calcium.
Strange creatures?
Now let’s venture back to earth. Replace the snails with people, and the shells with our cars. Almost everyone you know has one. We could even imagine that the cars are the dominant life form on the planet, enslaving the humans who work constantly to make sure that their car masters have enough gas and oil. If the car gets sick, the humans reschedule their lives in order to make the car well. Many humans spend a lot of time grooming and cleaning their car masters.
Not only that, but we’ve re-arranged our entire landscape to accommodate these cars. We’ve gone through tremendous effort to lay down roads from coast to coast on nearly every continent. In many of these areas (called Freeways), humans without cars are not even allowed. It gets even more interesting if you consider how much the cars demand of our society as a whole. The oil used as sacrificial offerings to our cars debatably creates wars, drives the health (or illness) of our economy, and causes us to degrade our environment.
Mayhaps this is all just silly fantasy, but if you take an outside perspective, it’s pretty interesting how much of our lives revolve around (and depend upon) our cars. Even many of the homeless humans I see spend most of their time on the side of the road, hoping to be able to make use of someone else’s car.
If it wasn’t so normal to worship our cars like this, we might think it was a sort of cultish obsession. Some families even upkeep more cars than people!
Maybe you think this is ludicrous, and don’t feel that your car is your rightful master. But what about your house? What about your career? What about your 42” plasma TV or your video game console or your relationship or your cell phone or your email?
It can be interesting to step back and ask a simple question – Just what is it that we’re working so hard for all the time? How many things are we striving to upkeep? And what percentage of our life is spent in upkeep vs. spent simply enjoying this life we’ve been given?
Maybe, if you stop to take a look, you’ll decide that everything is just fine, and that the things you’re upkeeping give you enough pleasure that it’s worth the effort. But maybe you’ll discover that you’re trying to support a lot of things which don’t really give you that much in return.
Often, we’ll find that we are supporting many things simply out of habit. Sometimes, upon reflection, we discover that we’re frittering away our whole lives just to upkeep a whole lot of things which we’ve never even bothered to examine.
Here is a space to take a breath.
How often do you get that? Here is your calling to sit down and take a look at your life and ask yourself what each moment of your precious life is being spent upon.
It is my hope that you all discover a way to revel in every moment, every breath, and every action. This is your birthright. It’s yours for the taking, if you want it. All you have to do is open your eyes, see what you’re spending your life upon, and decide where you want to go from here.
Another great pointer, Kenton!
Just curious, though. What are you a slave to? Assuming you’re still like the rest of us living on the same planet.
I already know you’re messy (from one of your old articles), which means I wouldn’t want to live in the same house as you as you’d drive me nuts! Still, that’s reassuring to know, in a way.
Hello sof theo!
Ooo! Fun Question! I’m a slave to my wife, who I adore. Chocolate. The darker the better. The woods. Whatever silly dream I happen to be chasing at the time. Homemade margaritas. Snorkeling and seeing the sea turtles. Sleep. Chocolate milk. Playing in the snow. Walking barefoot. Dodging bottle rockets that my friend Mike shoots at me. Examining everything. Did I mention Chocolate? Amedei. Milk. My horses. Definitely a slave to my horses. I hate to admit this one since I really should be a dedicated vegetarian, but barbecued ribs. Singing stupid songs that I make up off the top of my head. Those sorts of things. I guess I could do without everything else =)
And I’m sorry to mess up the whole reassuring thing, but we’ve now begun the process of cleaning up the whole house, which has involved giving away almost everything that once made the house messy.
Oh well. I guess everyone will have to continue thinking of me as the all-knowing guru of perfection. O algo
Sweet dreams,
Kenton
Kenton,
This is right on for me! I just got back from New York City (last time I was there was about 10 yrs ago) and we live in the Pocono Mt. region of Penna. We drove 1.5 hours on the freeway to get to North Jersey and take a “water taxi” across to the city to ride a bus to and fro.
Then we walked the streets briefly in a mass of moving flesh all competing for useless possessions that nobody really needs, but that everybody habitually believes they must have to be “happy”. After about 6 hours of this we got back on the buses, water taxi and another 1.5 hour freeway ride back (not to mention the amount of human energy wasted in the stress of competing for freeway space). Even though the purpose of our trip was to take my kids to the Statue of Liberty (it was closed!). The whole time I kept repeating to myself that this is all absolutely insane.
But I know people that make this same “commute” to work (career) every day so that they can make the money needed to maintain the biggest houses and the best cars and have all the other stuff that sadly for them seems to define happiness. We seem to be wasting our lives in the “habits of happiness” while denying that we’re not “happy.”
Sorry, didn’t mean to rant, but I agree that it’s time to deeply review our concepts of happiness that make us slaves to material values and is essentially, killing us.
Great Essay!
Mike S
Slave to everything fun. You’re the perfectly happy guru, alright. Thanks for the glimpses. Just checking.
What I dream about is living like they did 100 years ago. I would love nothing better than if my family and I lived off the land. Our possessions would include our animals – horses and cows and chickens and pigs maybe.
Our house would be a simple wooden structure, perhaps two stories, with a front porch facing the sunsets. We would have a wooden stove and I would chop wood to stay in shape. Our kids would grow up without TV, video games, ipods or cell phones. We would have breakfast together every morning and dinner together every evening. The little settlement we lived in would have just one school where all our kids went from 1st to 12th grade to learn about things that enrich ones life. Most importantly, we would have each other. Telling stories and reading books instead of the TV. We would actually experience love, lifelong love, caring and nurturing. None of this seperation when college time coms around. None of this going our seperate ways to the far corners of the country or the globe. I would know my sons and we would be great friends and work hard together, and my daughters would respect their Dad who would always be there to gently brush away their hurts be it emothional or physical. I would love my grandkids who would have a Grandfather right there instead of all the way across the country. We would be a family in the true sense and it would last our whole lives as we really experienced the beauty which exists in the simplicity of lives lived in the moment for one another. Ironically, when we had this idealic life 100 years ago, we dreamed of greener grass and progress. Well, welcome to progress in the year 2007; the anthesis of what I have just written. No thanks, Mister, give me Montana!
Jerry
Dear Mike,
I can relate to how this can feel — watching people move through life as if asleep, and wanting to do something to ‘wake them up’ =)
As we ‘wake up’ ourselves, we seem to move to new levels of awareness, and this is when it’s easy to look back and want to reach out to help others. It’s also a great reminder that we may find ourselves, a year from now, looking back at our present level of awareness and wondering how we could ever have been so asleep!
The one person we can always truly help is ourselves. To look at our own lives and see what it is that is keeping us from our own idea of ‘perfection’.
sof theo wrote a very good question above. I answered in fun, but my list of delightful things isn’t all that different from anyone else’s. I might take issue with myself about the barbecued ribs, for instance, judging that I am choosing to eat animals who have probably lived in small cages all their lives. I love my horses, but they require much of my time, and do their own ‘damage’ to the environment. Everything on my list could be joyful, or could be a burden. When we can truly feel joy in all that we do (every action, every thought), our actions can become pure, and then, perhaps, we can help others to awaken as well.
Thank you for your observations and words — I always appreciate it when people bring ‘real life’ to this website.
Sweetwater,
Kenton
Hello Jerry,
That’s a beautiful vision. I’ve often dreamed of living in community, and of moving toward simpler ways. So much of what we call ‘progress’ is indeed dubious. I’ve found that we can also experience the fruits of a simple, love-based lifestyle here in the 21st century. It just takes awareness of our relation to life, technology, and our own minds.
Thank you for the vision — I hope that you can find its essence — wherever and whenever you are living.
Sweetwater,
Kenton
Thanks for that, Kenton, and thanks for your genuine interest in those who read your blog.
The ‘Keys’ to finding a happy balance
I finally did it…I’ve convinced myself that I don’t really need a fancy, over-priced automobile anymore…In fact, I’m kind of looking forward to ridding myself of the Saab convertible once the lease is up here in a few months and replacing it with a low-end offering from GM….probably the Chevy AVEO.
Why the shift in thinking? I guess I’m a little tired of the $500+ monthly lease payments for an automobile that isn’t even mine…Did I enjoy driving the Saab convertible? Absolutely…the car is well built; even if it is a GM product…it was fun to hear the turbo kick in when you stepped down hard on it…it was fun, when not too hot nor too cold outside, to troll around town with the top down…it was cool to see the top contraption hide the top fold and contort as it hid itself in the trunk…it was a fun car to drive especially on long trips…
Then, why the change in heart…? Am I a representative example of a shift in current consumer thinking/spending? Am I shocked by the rising new car prices? Is the ridiculousness of oil company profits and rising gasoline prices finally taking its toll on me? Am I actually learning to act on my convictions and ideas which I spout out about each day in my writing; by simplifying – at least a little bit – the things I feel I need to own and acquire? Am I recognizing that, like my life…there is an end in store for me…and an end to the cash available for living to the end of my years; whenever that might occur?
I honestly don’t think I was ever motivated to buy or lease a car purely for the reaction it might bring from other people; you know, for it’s status symbol…I probably was influenced though by advertising, talk and magazines regarding the ‘coolest’ most stylish designs available. In fact, I know this was the case when I purchased the Mitsubishi convertible I had a few years back…I just really liked the styling; the look of that car.
I think I’m still sensitive to design and shape…the little cars I’m considering next do have a sort of modern design which I appreciate. But, the overall cost of the cars, relative to the types I would purchase previously, are significantly less.
These ‘little’ cars are also more economical to run, have lower insurance and licensing costs, improved gas mileage, etc. In a small way, they are more friendly to the environment.
I’m told the key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity. Maybe this is a very first ‘tiny’ step for me to put my actions where my words are…
John Torcello
Thanks, John, from sharing of your personal experience with this issue, and of your journey to match intention and action.
Sweetwater,
Kenton