How Much?

Too Much!

“We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of our time: How much is enough?”

Wendell Berry

          When my children were young, my husband and I grew a large garden. Toward the end of June, the tomato crop would come in all at once, and demand an entire day in the kitchen washing, peeling, scalding, and canning tomatoes. When it was done, I felt proud of the rows of beautiful red quarts that would make great soups and stews all winter long. But after that long canning session, the tomatoes didn’t stop coming in, so I gave them away to neighbors, hauled them down to the soup kitchens, and begged friends to please take them. Too much of anything is not good—even ripe tomatoes.

          As an American, I have more than I need. I’ve often noticed that grocery store aisles are packed floor to ceiling—there must be at least a hundred varieties of breakfast cereal, all with the same basic ingredients, but in different shapes. So, when those shelves emptied of toilet paper and paper towels, we could not believe our eyes. How could this be? This is America—we are used to having too much, not too little, and certainly not NONE! We witnessed the ensuing panic.

          Within two miles of me, there are at least seven enormous storage facilities where people rent space to store all their extra “stuff.” Sometimes those facilities are so full your name gets put on a waiting list. We have too much stuff. Which begs the question, “Why?” Why do we continue buying and buying even after our needs are met? Our houses and apartments and condos are full of stuff, and we have more food than we can eat? Did you know that Americans waste 150,000 TONS of food every single day? That’s 1.3-BILLION tons per year!

          My house was built in the 1950’s. The closets are small, not walk-in, and only one to a bedroom. In the 1950’s a couple shared that one closet, and all their clothes fit into it. We can see from that one example that much has changed since then. For a long time, I tried to figure out how to expand closet space in this house—could I reconfigure some part of it to accommodate a nice, big walk-in closet? Now, my goal is to pare down what I own until it all fits into the space I have. Such a novel idea!

          This time of isolation provides us an opportunity to reevaluate how we live. Many things have changed. We have changed, too. We have learned that we can work from home, we can shop every couple of weeks, and we can tolerate solitude better than we thought possible. So, the question now is, can we give up our penchant for having too much? How much is enough?

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane