A Measure of Success

Why do we, as Americans, equate the accumulation of material possessions with success?  My primary task today is to start to sort and to stage boxes, furniture, and "things" that we want to take to Florida. As I look around my house and basement, I am absolutely astounded.

For the last 35 years, Rick and I have purchased enough material possessions to literally fill two homes.  We have, for many years, had a fairly lucrative lifestyle, so when we wanted something, we bought it.  And when we grew tired of something or our lifestyle changed, we did what ever other Midwestern couple does: we stored the goods in the basement.  Thirty-five years later, we have a full gym downstairs (that is not reflected in the size of my behind!), we have tables, lamps, dressers, book shelves, tools and more tools, bicycles, and boxes upon boxes of kitchen goods and other items from our hopefully soon-to-be-sold camper.

To illustrate how out-of-control our lifestyle has become, I need only to look at the hall closet that holds, among other things, six flashlights!  Who in this world needs six flashlights?  We are only two people.  If we each held one in each hand, we would still have an excess of two. I suppose I could tuck one under my arm facing backwards as I hold the other two, but does a person really need two headlights AND a tail light?   Maybe if I were outside walking at dusk such illumination would make sense, but I hardly think I need three lights to navigate through my kitchen.

Of course, the excess does not stop there.  I think I have the "Noah syndrome" because I seem to have many things in multiples of two:  two bicycles, two brooms, two bread pans, two cake pans, two pair of winter boots, and the list goes on.

At least with the Florida house, sanity may rule for a while as I scale back to one item per household.  Egad!  I just realized that I now have two houses! 

Is excess really a measure of success?  Why do we feel the need to have more than one of a useful item?  Will the world end if we only have one cake pan or one flashlight per person in the household? In watching the devastation that recent tornadoes have caused across this great land, I heard a person say, "The house is gone, but we are all still here.  Everything else can be replaced."  She was right.  Thousands of people are heartbroken to lose much of what they have worked for, but only people really count. Material goods can be replaced. 

Learning to live with less and to live simply is a lesson that Rick and I need to remember.  Our income is not what it once was, nor will it ever be again.  But we have more than enough worldly goods to get by, and the true measure of success, in my eyes, is being able to be content in living simply.