Get a life, but keep it simple

I've been away on vacation this past week. Had no access to a computer, so that's why I haven't written for awhile. My friend with whom I stayed does not have a computer in his home. During our conversations, several times he asked me how to go about something and my immediate answer would be, "Well, you can go online..." Then he would remind me that he does not have access to the Internet.

I'm sure my friend, Philip Del Ricci would have something to say about that because he is an IT "techy," and not having a personal home computer sounds archaic in our modern world. Yet, I must admit that I admire it to a certain degree. For example, when I travel I never cease to be amazed by the use of cell phones. Sitting in the boarding area at the airport, almost every other person is on their cell phone. Then as soon as the flight attendant announces that the door has been opened after landing, all the cell phones fly up to people's ears. I mean really, can't you even wait till you get off the plane?

I do not have a cell phone. I'm not opposed to them. Someday I might get one. But for now, there are just certain times (like while waiting to board a plane) when I simply do not want to be available...to anyone. Even for an emergency. Someone else will have to take care of it.

I do not have cable TV, either. I don't watch that much television, and I don't want to. I don't want the entertainment industry determining the schedule of my life. I get seven different channels on my "rabbit ears" antenna, and that keeps me happy. After all, I can't watch more than one channel at a time, anyway. My brother was once coming from out-of-town and planned to stay overnight at my apartment until he learned that I do not have cable. He went to a motel instead! Oh well, that was his choice.

I value quiet time. I enjoy listening to the birds outside my second-floor window. Late in the evening I like to sit outside in the dark on my small deck and absorb the quiet and the darkness before going to bed.

Another friend I visited seems really strapped for money. He holds down two jobs in order to get by month to month. His condo is really over-furnished, and he admits that. He lives alone, yet he has 3 televisions. Now he wants to get a piano (he doesn't play) because he thinks it would impress visitors, and he was trying to figure out how to rearrange the furniture so a piano will fit. I shake my head in amazement at him.

He typifies the modern American consumer. Business wants us to spend all the money we can - even money we don't have. That's why credit cards exist. My friend has to work holidays and lots of overtime just to pay his bills. But he has so little time to enjoy what he has and he is so exhausted when he does have time, that he can't enjoy anything.

We don't have to live like that. But living a less crazy life means that we have to make deliberate choices to take control of our lives rather than letting social and financial expectations control us. It's not that difficult, either. For example, whenever I walk into a department store or a discount store, I have a mantra that I just keep repeating: "Only what I really need; not what would just be nice to have." Then, everytime I look at some product in the store, I ask myself if I really need it. Most of the time the answer is "No," and so I pass it up.

Occasionally, I do "treat" myself to something that I don't need but would just like to have (like a chocolate ice cream cone). But that is also a deliberate choice, not merely because everyone else has one, or even worse, because it's on sale. In this way I believe and hope that I am saving both money and time for things I will really, really need and/or want later on.

Here's a beautiful book that has helped: Making More of Life With Less: Seeking Humility, Simplicity, and Silence by Rick Mathis, Ph.D. (Liguori Publications, 2004). Here are parts of a couple of paragraphs from the book:

"Simplicity demands that we lead a more reflective life and make choices according to this life. Although it does include some work at the beginning, there is a payoff in the end as far as not spending beyond your means, both in spending money and in spending another precious commodity. That commodity is time.

"Simplicity calls us to ease the complexities with which we have filled our lives. Do we really have to run in circles trying to take care of so many things at the same time? Can we get by with less?"

If a person has any kind of spirituality - in fact, if a person wants to have any kind of a life at all, then it seems to me that simplicity, quiet and reflectiveness are necessary. Wasn't it Socrates who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living."? So it's nothing really new.