Life's Simple Pleasures
My friend, who is serving a life without parole sentence, commented in a letter this week that he’d been thinking about life’s simple pleasures he misses after twenty-five years in prison. His lives in the sweltering mugginess of Alabama. At the top of his list was ice. What he wouldn’t give for a tall glass of ice water, he wrote. In prison, they spend their days drinking tepid water.
My list of simple pleasures includes:
1. Sitting on our front porch on summer evenings and feeling the air cool.
2. The sweetness of a freshly picked tomato.
3. Afternoon naps.
4. Gladiolas, roses and poppies.
5. A well written sentence.
I am blessed with a simple life. LaPriel and I went to Sam’s Club yesterday and walked among the towering shelves of merchandise. So many things called out to be purchased, but I found nothing interested me⎯except for a box of blueberries, which I bought and happily consumed.
LaPriel and I often dream of the day when I quit work and we can travel as much as we want. As I contemplate that, I look at my belongings and mentally begin giving them away, winnowing them down to the essentials. Here are the seven things, excluding clothes, I think I could keep and live a perfectly contented life.
1. Apple Powerbook
2. Panerai watch
3. iPhone
4. Trek road bike
5. Nikon D50 digital camera
6. Moleskine notebook
7. Pen
What are your seven?
Comments
I guess I'll be the first to give my input. Keep in mind I'm not suggesting we get rid of everything else dad.
1. Books
2. Guitar
3. iPod/Music
4. A Bike
5. Video Games
6. Notebook
7. Pencil or Pen
Posted by: Camden | August 13, 2007 7:15 PM
It's a good start Camden, but you'll have to narrow it down further to get to 7. Which book? What are you going to play your 1 video game on?
When is the garage sale?
Posted by: jd | August 13, 2007 8:09 PM
That is tough; I'll have to think about this and report back on my blog....
Posted by: Simmons | August 14, 2007 12:33 PM
I'm ready for a smaller footprint and have started clearing out the house room by room. After years of always getting a bigger house with each new assignment, I'm ready to start downsizing.
And I'd trade the phone for a knitting project.
Posted by: Kelley | August 14, 2007 1:49 PM
JD, I struggled with this list. Technically, I could do without all 7 but life wouldn't be as fun:
1. a Toshiba notebook (loaded with eBooks, Movies and Music);
2. a sturdy hybrid bike;
3. a tall bottle of Bulgari's au thè blanc;
4. a classical guitar;
5. a Nikon DSLR (mine is only a compact D40);
6. an espresso machine;
7. a vial of Formosan soil (because I have to meet the quota of 7).
Posted by: DC | August 14, 2007 7:53 PM
1. iPod
2. motorcycle
3. a good pen
4. my Treo
5. decent red wine
6. a real big laugh every four days
7. an occasional touch on the shoulder
Posted by: Popeye | August 15, 2007 7:22 AM
Perhaps you could knit a phone Kell.
DC, I impressed you had to stretch to come up with 7. You must already live a simple life.
Popeye, wonderful list. Certainly less materialistic than mine.
Posted by: jd | August 15, 2007 8:28 AM
Until a few years ago, my life was extremely complicated. I made a conscientious decision to simplify. Happiness that lasts comes from within.
It'd be really dull to do without books and films, though!
Posted by: DC | August 15, 2007 8:33 PM
Okay, I found it necessary to create two lists. The first we might call my broader, "general good" list, and the second my personal list.
General Good:
1. Environmentalism
2. A viable democratic system of checks and balances
3. Music
4. Literature
5. Craft-brewed beer
6. Mixed-use neighborhoods
7. Photography
Of course, there are others necessary in this list, including:
8. Electricty
9. The imagination of children
10. Good teachers and mentors
11. Compassion and tolerance
12. College football
13. The Sonoran desert
Personal:
1. Canon EOS Rebel XT, various lenses and supporting equipment, including batteries and memory cards
2. Laptop computer with DVD, video, music (and earplugs/headphones), and viable Internet connection
3. Notebook paper and mechanical pencil with refills
4. Craft-brewed beer (you see my priorities on both lists, eh?)
5. The poetry of Mary Oliver and A.R. Ammons
6. Tagless cotton t-shirts
7. Some form of transportation---if I continue to live in Tucson, then it would have to be a car; if I lived where there was decent mass transit, then a mountain bike
And in addition to the given of shelter, let's include the given of family, good fortune, good health.
Thanks, JD, for getting us thinking about this.
Posted by: Simmons | August 16, 2007 8:10 AM
You will have to share some simplification tips on your blog sometime DC.
Thanks for the thoughtful response Simmons. I will have to read the two poets you mentioned. You must do your writing with a pencil or do you have a sketching talent I didn't know about?
Posted by: jd | August 17, 2007 7:27 AM
I write poetry with a pencil (or pen, whatever), but write prose on my computer. But I like to write out outlines, ideas, website wireframes, etc., too.
Posted by: Simmons | August 19, 2007 6:29 PM