Lin Yutang,
Chinese writer,
1895-1976

… The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…

William Wordsworth

Years ago when I had no permanent job, no money, and no immediate prospects for a job, everything was very different. I had no possessions other than a few books. That was it. About once a month I bought a book, and I savored it slowly. I went to the library. I had no computer. Few clothes. A couple of pairs of shoes. I did have a relatively new car.

I was terribly unhappy and depressed at being so intransient, so rootless, so totally without any anchors in my life. But in my lack of possessions, I had a great gift, and I didn’t appreciate how much I had in my poverty as I do now when I have an abundance.

I have been neglecting all the rich layers of meaning and thoughts in individual books I want to read, because so many other books, magazines, the Internet, etc., clamor for attention. There is clutter. I am surrounded. I want out.

Sometimes I wish I could just give away everything (except for certain books), and start over. When I moved into my first apartment here in 1995, I had a bed, two lamps, a recliner chair, a tiny kitchen table, and empty space all around the walls. A few boxes of things here and here. Life was simpler. I long for those days now.
It becoms harder and harder to give away anything, to throw out, to eliminate the clutter. After a while you become resigned to it.

What are those things I desire that are “beyond my reach?” That is the key phrase in Yutang’s words quoted above. It is beyond my reach to read and know everything that I perceive I want to know about history, philosophy, psychology, comparative religion, media, communication, social sciences. My reach has exceeded my ability to grasp just one thing at a time and know it fully and well. And, to be content with that. What is it that I really want to know anyway? We are inundated with information. How much do we need to know to live useful lives in this society and to contribute to making it a better one?

I try to keep myself informed, but I end up glossing over the surface of news and current events. I didn’t get to watch the late, great Bill Moyers’ special on the cover-up of the deadly dangers of vinyl chloride by the chemical industry, a systematic public relations effort to deceive. I have the transcript of the program bookmarked on my computer, but I haven’t delved into it yet. What are the latest advances against the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease? How does one invest one’s money for the future in light of today’s turmoil and uncertainty? In the stock market? If you can give to only so many charities, which ones among all the deserving ones should you give to? How MUCH money does one need to live on these days? Why does housing take up a third to a half of our income? Isn’t there something seriously wrong with our society that we take this as a given? is there any wonder that there are so many homeless individuals and families and so many people without health insurance?

We need to know about all these things, but how much must we know? How can we make a difference?

It is all overwhelming sometimes. Most of us can’t go off into the woods and live for two years in a cabin by ourselves like Thoreau did. We have to live in the world, as much as we might like to get rid of everything we own and trade it for a life of voluntary simplicity. But to do that, don’t we still have to live in some form of community with others? And aren’t there going to be those in the communes and multi-generational housing who are greedy and selfish? We are all interdependent. We need others for all our basic needs.

All these thoughts go through my mind as I sit here scrolling on my phone on a hot July afternoon.

I wish I was sitting in a chair by the ocean, the sound of the surf washing all my worries away temporarily until I am released into nothing but a state of pure being. Or is that vague, transcendental state also something beyond my reach?

I can go to the ocean any day I want and not worry about multi-tasking on the phone, or what lies ahead of me next week. I can put off feeling guilty about whether I am ever going to finish those five books I am simultaneously reading or thinking of reading .

My thoughts and attention are diverted every which way unless I stand back and realize what is actually beyond my reach, but also, what I can accomplish each day. Also, how I must learn to let go of everything else and be content with observing and learning from the simple beauty that is all around me just outside my door, and above me in the sky and warm wind.

I need to let the discordant noises from within and without fade away into nothingness, do what I can to alleviate whatever ills plague me in the present, and then let the answers come to me when I am not desperately seeking after knowledge or wisdom, or futilely and incessantly reaching for the insignificant, trivial or base things and desires of this world.