Simplify.

My boyfriend and I generally share the same values, but nothing I’ve ever said about environmentalism or overconsumption has hit him as forcefully as seeing Wall•E.

It’s on the Business Week website, but originally appeared in Print.

Excess Disguised as Less

I’ve never written an entry about this one, but, deep breath… here goes…

“Simplify.” is probably the biggest goal on my list. It’s a constant around here. Every day more stuff comes into my house. More objects, more information, more junk… A lot of my goals are about concentrating on the things that are most important and letting go of the things that aren’t, and simplify is the biggest of them. It’s not just keeping my house clean or my life organised, it’s about continually examining my life and removing the silt from it, dredging out the muck and making my life flow more easily.

When I was a kid, my parents took me to Pleasant Hill a few times, and while I was all into my GameBoy on the way over, as an adult, I like their life more and more. Most people only know about their furniture and boxes - clean, efficient and well-made - but in that community, they lived their whole lives with stewardship and ethics that I would like to bring into mine. To whit:

‘Tis the gift to be simple,
‘tis the gift to be free,
‘tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
‘Til by turning, turning we come round right

‘Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
‘Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we’ll all live together and we’ll all learn to say,

‘Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
‘Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of “me”,
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we’ll all live together with a love that is real.