October 25, 2002

• Psychotic or Simple

  
  

  I was listening to NPR yesterday.  One of the brief asides in a story about activism was that people who are very young, or who are very old tend to be the most politically active.  People with young children and mortgages cannot afford to rock the boat.  This makes perfect sense to me.  Henry David Thoreau, off at Walden pond, had the time to critique the government and the security that he took no economic risk by doing so.

  
  

  Southern Indidana is peopled by a group committed to simple living.  When I go into town, I see them.  Black clad families riding in horse drawn buggies to the feed store, the grocery, and sometimes through the drivethrough at McDonald's.  (It's only my knowledge that they prefer not to be photographed that keeps me from following them with my camera.  They seem such quaint and surreal figures on the contemporary landscape, even here in Salem, Indiana.)

  
  

  What makes Amish living simple?  It isn't that they don't work.  On the contrary they have to work very hard.  They farm, build, and tend livestock.  They school their children at home.  They marry young (usually by age 16) and have large families.  The key element that I notice has to do with the Amish attitude toward debt and possessions.  They don't do debt, everything is worked out on a cash-only basis.  Material possessions are cared for, have a simple beauty, and don't dominate the lives of the possessors.

  
  

  By contrast the rest of the community strikes me as not only materialistic, but psychotically so.  We make decisions not on the basis of sound reason, but fear.  If I don't stay late and show the boss how committed I am, the promotion will go to the other guy.  If I speak out about unethical practices I observe, I might lose my job.  If I make my family a priority, I'll find myself siderailed form the fasttrack onto the "Mommy Track."  I have a perfectly servicable ______ but I feel I MUST have a new one.  Where planned obsolescence leaves off, psychological obsolescence takes over.  We crave things we neither need nor enjoy in order to impress people we do not like.  We are bombarded with ads whose message is that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality.  We learn that we should feel ashamed if we wear our clothes or drive our cars until they are worn out. 

  
  

  Gerry Spence, the leather clad lawyer from Jackson Hole, Wyoming wrote a book entitled "Give Me Liberty."  He tends to be a bit flamboyant in his presentation, but his basic argument is worth noting.  Life in America is not free.  We are subjects of an economic and psychological slavery the likes of which are unprecedented in history.  Our lust for security has led to an insane attachment to things.  Our desire to live a "good life" leads us to give up everything that's good about it, the desire for affluence in contemporary society is simply ... crazy.

  
  

  Opposite the notion of simplicity is complexity.  A complex life is made up of and influenced by many parts.  The Preacher of Ecclesiastes said, "God made man simple, man's complex problems are of his own devising." (Ecc. 7:30 Jerusalem Bible).  If complexity is the problem, what is the solution.  Archimedes said, "Give me a place to stand and I will move the world."  Modern life affords us no place to stand.  How can we become centered, if we are constantly being pulled, pushed, tossed up and blown down in the storm?

  
  

  Jesus said, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you."  By placing our first priority on the things of life, we are doomed to disorder and disarray.  Reorienting ourselves to life that flows out of a spiritual center, we find that things will reprioritze themselves.  Soren Kierkegaard commenting on this Gospel passage concluded, " ... in a certain sense it is nothing I shall do.  Yes, in a certain sense it is nothing, become nothing before God, learn to keep silent; in this silence is the beginning, which is first to seek God's Kingdom."

  
  

  Inward simplicity ineveitably leads toward outward action.  I have wrestled with the idea of offering some guidelines for simplicity.  I tried once before and it was suggested that I was calling for people to live like peasants.    Let me assure you, I believe that forcing you into the life of a peasant, is a far from simple thing.  But, I don't believe that inward simplicity is possible without accompanying external signs.  So I'm going to give a list from Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, which I have found useful.

  
  

  1. Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.
  2. Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you (unless you are addicted to reading my Xanga blogs - I hereby grant you special dispensation for that particular ailment.)
  3. Develop a habit of giving things away.
  4. Refuse to be propagandized by purveyors of gadgetry.  (Gadgets never save you time, and never pay for themselves in six months.)
  5. Learn to enjoy things without owning them.
  6. Develop a deeper appreciation for nature (which is generally free!)
  7. Eye with healthy skepticism all "buy now, pay later" schemes.  (An exception to this rule is that in today's market it is possible to obtain credit cards with a 0% interest introductory period.  If you have revolving debt, I strongly suggest that you consider cutting up the card, transferring the balance to a 0% card and paying off as much as you can afford per month.  Then at the end of the introductory period, do it again - switch to another 0% card.)
  8. Employ simple speech.  Let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no. 
  9. Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.
  10. Shun anything that distracts you from your spiritual center, the Kingdom of God.

  
  

  Amish communities may not have it all figured out.  Many of their rules, designed to encourage simple living bring complex problems in a changing world.  No list of rules can be turned into a one-size-fits-all blueprint for simple life. 

  
  

  I will this day try to
     live a simple, sincere
        and serene life.

  
  

  I will repel promptly every thought
     of discontent, anxiety, discouragement
        impurity, and self-seeking.
  
  I will cultivate
     cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity
        and the habit of holy silence.
  
  I will exercise
     economy in expenditure,
     carefulness in conversation,
     diligence in appointed service,
     fidelity to every trust.

  
  

                      John H. Vincent

  
  

   

  
  

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  For those my SISTERS who like leaving me 0 props because they are enamoured of the little devil, I have now switched.  You can leave a little devil in your comments if you type the characters for a smiley sticking out his tongue. 

  • 9:12 am
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