When Less is More

Now that the commercial onslaught of Christmas has concluded and we are again back home to put away all our new “stuff”, my thoughts turn to Henry David Thoreau, whose book Walden I have read and studied more than any other work, and whose simple guidelines to living still guide me in much that I do.

In the spring of 1845, this brilliant twenty-seven-year-old schoolteacher and visionary writer – Thoreau - began a two year, two month experiment to live a simplified, more authentic life – “to live deliberately” as he put it, in a tiny one room, self-built cabin in the woods on the shores of Walden Pond, some distance north of Boston.

His foundational axiom of simple living – high thinking, and the penetrating beauty of his writings – deeply soulful and down-to-earth practical – have for decades inspired and catalyzed numerous environmental revelations and life-style choices. Thankfully, they are continuing to influence the regenerative thinking of a rapidly growing fellowship of twenty-first century planetary-stewards.

At times it seems as if Thoreau is even strolling about with some of us right now; through woodlands and meadows, through crowded urban centers; running a succinct commentary from the clear streaming of his mind – past the extractive madness of greed – as he elucidates principles of self-sufficiency, and regenerative approaches to the life-support systems of our planetary biosphere. He’s delighted by the metaphor of ‘Spaceship Earth’ – and, he’s pleased by the continuance and embrace of his Walden experiment through the work of many awakening individuals in these late times.

Contrary to Thoreau’s admonishments, the unnecessary accumulation of things, of stuff, continues. Although there are beautiful shafts of life-affirming illumination breaking through everywhere, still, within these highly contrasting times of bleakest poverty and inconceivable riches, the accumulation of things amongst ‘the haves’ continues unabated. Storage facilities in developed nations revel in boom-times. People seek extra places to stash their stuff. Maybe it’s a distorted, dysfunctional definition, a toxic belief: wherein stuff = love, and love = stuff?

History is rife with accounts of people getting stuff and holding on to stuff. Egyptian pharaohs, Viking kings, Chinese emperors, Celtic chieftains, and others of religious and political prominence not only got it (stuff), but also tried to ‘take it with them.’ Centuries later all their stuff was still here, crumbling, and covered in dust and dirt. Obviously, greed and hoarding are nothing new. Does stuff = love, and love = stuff?

The simple truth is that the holes in the souls of hundreds of millions, even billions, of modern day humans can never be filled by material things. In far too many ways modern humans have been struggling within an onslaught of ceaseless waves of hypnotic programming (advertising) that surges through just about all the available bandwidths. Even now, when it should be most apparent, we are still told to accumulate things we don’t need, by spending money we don’t have.

Minds, hearts and systems need changing. Ethnobotanist and visionary Terence McKenna put it very slap-in-the-face-bluntly,

"Reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.”

Cultural historian Thomas Berry said the same thing in a different key,

"The difficulty of our times is our inability to awaken out of this cultural pathology.”

Thus, one of the most important, pressing and persistent questions for our times is, ‘How might we live more sustainably, more consciously, simply, compassionately, and regeneratively?’ Within popular culture there are, thankfully, numerous emergent life-affirming signs and orientations that include, to the surprise of many, ‘letting-go of clutter.’ A burgeoning lifestyle equation seems to be:

less stuff = greater peace, satisfaction, and freedom.

Keeping up with the Joneses is passé, while ‘decluttering’ is on trend. Life on a planet with limited resources demands that this attitude be more than just a passing trend. A growing array of popular books on simplifying our lives and getting rid of excess possessions is a good start. It seems like millions of ‘regular people’ are starting to wake up to Walden!

Just as inspired activists and visionaries speak about, ‘The Great Turning’ – so those in what has now become the budding tiny house movement are living themselves into ‘The Great Downsizing.’ Like many things that are unfolding in these unprecedented transitional times, tiny housing is not seen as the singular solution, but rather, it plays its part in the overall shift that is accelerating and gathering us up. These times are immensely uplifting if we know where and how to look.

Not sure if I could fit all my important “stuff” into a single tiny house, but then again, I don't think about it much either. Not to despair! Even if I never move into a tiny house, it is still good to return again and again to the sound wisdom of Henry David Thoreau, whose life, perhaps, may best be empitomized by two economical words of reminder:

“Simplify! Simplify!”

Adapted from Richard Henry Whitehurst on December 24th, 2020, at upliftconnect.com