A good book, I think, is distinguished by its ability to transport the reader to 'somewhere else.' By this, I mean more than pulp fiction escapism. I mean a place of new thought, philosophical territory as yet unexplored by the reader, fields of new information, lands of epiphany, skies of new considerations. One such book provoked in me a thought that surfaces occasionally in my frenzied mind:
Width or Depth?
I have written previously in an article entitled Multum, Non Multa about this concept. Recently, though, several things have returned my thinking to this same great idea. One of these pointers was the phrase I Tweeted a week or so ago:
Happiness lies not in getting what you want but in wanting what you have.
In a rushed society of more, bigger, faster, shinier, louder, fancier, more expensive, more expansive, more ostentatious – something must get crowded out. Usually those 'somethings' are the little things. And often, those little things might be the important things; irreplaceable moments with children, quiet moments in worship and prayer, moments of solitude in deep thought, casual moments with friends, moments of interaction with neighbors, and chance moments of every sort. In a world that naturally and consistently nods its head in approval at the bigger steps and yawning appetite of MORE, the value judgment seems already made that the smaller stuff is somehow by its very nature less significant. This might be a tragedy in that we notice the loss less and less as technology and the NEXT THING crowd further into our culture.
However, I am not suggesting a return to Walden's Pond. As has almost become a cliche, the truth is most likely somewhere between the extremes. However, it is worth considering that more contacts, more tasks, more stuff, more engagements, more commitments, more more more might in the end just be less less less.
This article would have been better as a poem, I think, the very representation of saying more with less.
And as an illustration of the very concept that less may be better, I end.
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