Simplify, simplify, simplify!

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Thoreau’s Walden had a profound impact on my thinking. It’s hard to achieve the kind of transcendent simplicity he describes when you live with other people, as I do, but if your family is out of town for a week, as mine is, here are some things you might want to try.

Don’t Recycle

When my wife is here, we have to sort and bag bottles, cans and plastic separately. Later on that noise! Everything goes straight into the garbage! Simplify, simplify, simplify!

Don’t Wash Dishes

Drink liquids from the container and eat food straight out of whatever you cooked it in. If you have to clean an eating utensil, put it in your mouth, press your lips together, and pull it back out.

Bloom Where You’re Planted

Why walk all the way to the bathroom if there’s a bottle, can or sink close at hand? A real time-saver!

I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily . . . and threw them out the window in disgust.

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

That book made a powerful impression on me. After reading it, I decided that I, like Thoreau, would travel light along the road of life, and stop dragging so much useless junk around with me.

Unfortunately, that was almost 20 years ago and I still haven’t been able to carry it off.

Not yet, anyway.

But I still think the concept is valid . . .

I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground.

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

We’ve got a number of uncontrolled fires burning in Southern California. It’s raining ash out of a darkened sky in Orange County, where I live, although we’re nowhere near the actual fires.

Continue reading Burning Down the House