Live Simply
“...there
are often many things we feel we should do that, in fact, we don't
really have to do. Getting to the point where we can tell the
difference is a major milestone in the simplification process.”
Elaine St.
James (Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying
More)
Henry David Thoreau wrote
in Walden: “It is desirable that a man live in all respects so
simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town...he can walk
out the gate empty handed and without anxiety.” Boy-howdy, have
things ever changed! I heard an “expert” on NPR yesterday talking
about the latest cyber hack using ransom wear. His advice was, “back everything up, and don't agree to pay the ransom, but if you
are going to pay, know how to access bit-coin.” Say what? I may as
well be back there in Thoreau's time...just go to the woods, and
don't worry about cyber space!
Our modern lives have
become so complicated that we now have to concern ourselves with our
home being hacked—everything from security systems, to baby
monitors, to heart monitors, to pace-makers. We keep adding
protective systems, thinking those will be a firewall against
invasion, but they just give hackers something to gnaw on. The
“expert” on NPR had been hacked even with four layers of
protection. Here's my humble, non-expert suggestion—de-modernize.
Simplify. Let's take it back to when we lived in sustainable ways.
Ways that we could, if need be, “walk out the gate empty handed and
without anxiety.” Because, the enemy has taken the town, y'all, and
the enemy is us.
I'm not sure when we
became so dependent on computers. And now, there is much excitement
about increasing rather than decreasing our use of artificial
intelligence. What a boon that will be for humanity! Maybe within a
couple of decades there will be no need for us at all! I'm kidding,
of course, but only half-way. We have produced so much that we don't
understand, and we don't know how to control, that we put ourselves
in position every single day to be taken advantage of by people who
will stop at nothing to enrich themselves. How might we begin little
by little to disentangle ourselves from the reach of such folks? How
can we simplify to the point of being uninteresting to those who
spend their days in nefarious pursuit of other people's possessions? Are we
willing to give up our addictive and all consuming toys and get back
in touch with our real life—the life of our hearts and souls?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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