The Imagination of Enough

I'm sure you've heard of voluntary simplicity, but have you ever thought about it in relation to your own life? Probably. I know I have. In those evaluation questionnaires about my carbon footprint, and various other ways of thrift, I come out passably.

But then I caught myself ordering drug store sorts of things online the other day, adding items to the order so that I'd reach their free shipping minimum, and it gave me pause. Actually, it gave me a question.

What's enough?

Do I really need five tubes of toothpaste to make sure I don't run out? Or to meet the free shipping promise? It turned out, I didn't. Or to feel secure in some twisted emotional way? Truth is, I really don't.

I looked up the word enough in the OED, my favorite etymological tome. It comes from Old Teutonic roots that mean is it right or needful?

Think about it. All over the planet right now, people, in one way or another, are saying, "Enough."

Enough corruption.
Enough outrageous profits.
Enough hanky-panky.
Enough genocide.
Enough epidemics.
Enough war.

So, what's enough? What's right or needful at this time, in this place, for each life?

I think the concept of enough-ness applied by each person to her or his own life is the key to our economic and spiritual recovery plan. Each of us gets to decide what's enough for ourselves -- and not for anyone else.

This determination about personal enough-ness is the gem at the core of voluntary simplicity. There's a clever bumpersticker that reads: Live Simply, So Others May Simply Live. And this is where imagination comes in.

It's our very worst imaginations that tell us we must fear not-enough-ness. But imagination is like electricity. It's neutral. Just as you can use electricity to dry your hair, or electrocute yourself, you can use imagination for creating enough-ness or not-enough-ness. You get to pick -- especially on the level of imagination.

Slow it down and say it aloud ... Image A Nation. It's up to us, each one, to set an example of how to live and think and choose as though we each have enough. Enough, dear one, is a decision, a mindset, a way of being.

So, what's enough? It's what right or needful.

The fastest way for us all to get to enough is to live as if we are, do and have enough, and to give whatever excess of right or needful we have to others. As we each begin to do this, we will be imaging a nation of enough.

By focusing on what we do have, rather than on what we don't have, we will return to optimism, prosperity, and peace.

Visit Susan Corso's website at www.susancorso.com.

Comments

[taoist]

I have a saying and it is this, you can have so much more by having so much less. At one time i had the cars , the house, the toys ect. Then i had to go out of town to work for 3 months. I stayed in an Extended Stay which is like a studio apt. It dawned on me after a few weeks that my life was sooo much easier. I had 1 room to clean and the freedom to have more time to do the things i really enjoy. Time to site see, read more,and just relax without haveing to do all the things i did at home. When the job was done i went home and told my wife that i wanted to down size . I guess she did not agree and divorced me. I still think it was the best thing i have ever done ! LOL.

[OtayPanky]

Susan Corso: I think the concept of enough-ness applied by each person to her or his own life is the key to our economic and spiritual recovery plan. Each of us gets to decide what's enough for ourselves -- and not for anyone else.

===

Our societal addiction to high-energy living and conspicuous consumption is going to do to our society exactly what crack does to a crack addict.

Because of that, saying that "each of us gets to decide what's enough for ourselves -- and not for anyone else" doesn't pass the sanity test.

More than that, those who want to preach to the rest of the world about conservation of resources, have a particular responsibility to avoid the cardinal hypocrisy of not practicing what they preach.

The other day, The Daily Beast ran a good piece on this very subject:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-21/earth-day-poseurs/

Another example here on HuffPo is Kathy Freston, who passionately clamors for us to trade in our hamburgers for soy burgers for the sake of the planet - and yet thinks it's OK to have a bi-coastal marriage.

Or you have Sting and his wife Trudy - who advocate on behalf of the Amazon rainforest - and yet feel the need to live in a castle.

Or John and Elizabeth Edwards, who somehow needed to build and then live in a 28,000 sq ft house - the biggest in their county.

What's wrong with those pictures?

[Halsey]

sometimes fate imposes "simplfying" one's life...a terrible head on with a speeding teen in an SUV (uninsured­)...pretty much wiped me out in 2004.... I fought back...live in tiny single apt...ergo..don't need a sofa :-)...then...last July...I was diagnosed with aggressive cancer....yes..I have insurance...so for that I am lucky...however, the out of pocket and uncovered expenses have put me into such debt...I may never pay it off (assuming no recurrance­)....yes..­I feel very sorry for myself a lot...but also have been forced to realize...I don't need the sofa...didn't the Buddha say "you can only be in one room at a time"?...so..guess since I only HAVE one room...and surviving...maybe that is progress...

I have had some really cool trips and "things (luxuries)..in my life..(up until 2004)...but truly do know..I don't need that "stuff" anymore...I DO want good medical care...enough $$ to keep my two cats healthy.. but I dream of moving out of LA (I'm SOOOO over it)...to a perfect village with the same weather :-)....a place I can see unicorns flying by the window... as long as I have my dreams...I'll get by.

[MikeMarks]

well, there certainly isn't enough responses... I think the first half of your essay was covered well by Dylan's Blowing in the Wind 5o years ago... but I'm afraid generation after generation has been saying "enough war" and so on and still it goes on... if a paradym shift is needed, it will need to be bigger...but I did feel comfortable when you reminded me to inventory what I have rather than what I lack, and it some how felt right that that attitude could return us to prosperity, but actually, if I feel I have enough, everything I need, well, there wouldn't be much sense in me buying a lot of new stuff, or as you say 5 tubes of toothpaste, so realistically how would that attitude get money circulating again...