Simple Living and Literature

There are lots of blogs out there about simple living.  They cover everything from getting rid of stuff you don't need to living off the grid.  Some advocates seem just a little too serious about it, almost reverential, as if simple living actually produces a utopia of earthly living.  Truth be told, 72 ideas for simplifying seems an oxymoron.  However, raising children simply is a matter of sanity in our small house with 2 people per bedroom and ALL THEIR STUFF.  My better half, however, prefers to have two of everything -- in case one breaks.  So, how to keep her anxiety about the need for backup appliances and kitchen ware at a minimum, while also reducing the number of devices?  Still working on that.  And how to convince my children that their valuables are mostly an odd assortment of junk that they will forget about in 6 months?  Still working on that, too...

Well, truth be told, I have my own simplicity battle to fight.  And that is with books.  I haven't found a way to leave the 'Friends of The Library' used book section of our local library without SOMETHING.  There is always at least one book I really want.  Today, it was not one, but three books.  Total cost was so low ($5 - and that included a $2 tip!) that I was helpless to resist my book rescue impulse.  But where am I going to put them?  Don't know yet.

I moved a whole bookcase and two storage boxes of books to the garage in December, and I am already on track to defeat that effort by the end of this year.

It all comes down to value.  Booklovers understand exactly my dilemma.  You know who you are: with your stacks in the hallway and your bookcases where every shelf has a 'secret' row of books due to chronic 'double-parking' to make use of all available space.  Somehow, someday, I will have to face the reality of sorting my books into two groups: the one's my children will want when I am gone, and the ones that will go into the recycle bin.

But, I don't think I can do it.  Severing so many connections with so many pleasant hours in other worlds and places would be painful.  On second thought, I'll just leave it for the girls.