I'm continuing to enjoy the book "Sabbath" and the weekly class Dave and I are taking to discuss the book. We are already pretty much minimalists, trying not to have anything we don't need in order to live a simple "non-consuming" life. And to have more time to just BE and not feel guilty about it. I love the cartoon panel above by Grant Snyder. To me it says that good things will happen even if I, personally, am not making them happen.
Since the end of World War II our economy has been built on consumption. It was planned for us. Wayne Muller, in "Sabbath," talks about happiness vs. desire. Not the desire we feel for our lover, but the desire we have for stuff. We can't get enough stuff so we must work harder and harder to get more. Read the following advertisement for perfume.
You want it. You want it bad. Sometimes so much it hurts. You can taste it. You feel like you would do anything to get it. Go further than they'd suspect. Twist your soul and crush what's in your way. Then you get it. And something happens. You become the object of your desire. And it feels incredible.
Again, this is an ad for perfume. Expensive perfume. Meanwhile, enjoying nature costs nothing.
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