52 Card Project 2021: Week 45: Enough

[pegkerr]

I read a Facebook post essay this week that gave me much food for thought. The writer recounted his experience going through his possessions as he and his wife were downsizing, and his realization that he achieved peace and satisfaction at his discovery that what he had, in the end, was ENOUGH. Someone in the comments recounted the tale of Joseph Heller the time he went to a party at the home of hugely rich hedge fund manager. Another guest told Heller that the host had made more money in the past year than Heller had made from thirty years of his royalties from his book Catch-22.

Heller retorted that on the contrary, he had something much preferable that his host could never hope to have. He had enough.

The essay made me think about the line I discovered in a list of life goals that Rob wrote out in his twenties. He wanted to be not poor--but not rich, either. He just wanted enough.

That impressed me. I thought it was rather wise.

I realized over the course of this week that in fact, I have been mulling this concept over in a number of different aspects of my life.

Of course, I have been posting quite a bit over the past few years about culling possessions in the aftermath of Rob's death. What is the right amount of things, of stuff, to have around? How much is enough?

What is the right balance to strike in things like my diet? My exercise program?

I have been thinking about my neighborhood, because there has been, unhappily, a rise in crime in my area, and I have been thinking about personal security. How much of a sense of safety is enough? (I have in the past jokingly described myself as a Gryffindor with high security needs).

I have always said that part of the appeal I find in tarot is that it emphasizes and guides toward moderation.

Edited to add: see also my comment about the children’s book The King’s Equal.

The thinking I've done about this helped determine the design of the card: back when Rob was alive, when I was most exasperated with the glut of his possessions, I used to say that if it were not for his insistence on keeping so much stuff around, my bedroom would ideally only contain a simple bed and a vase with pussy willows.

Enough



Click here to read about the 52 card project and see the year's gallery.

Comments

[ndrosen]

I’m reminded of John Muir saying that he was richer than Leland Stanford, since he had all the money he wanted, and Stanford did not.

[pegkerr]

There’s a wonderful children’s book by the Newbery author Katherine Paterson: The King’s Equal, which turns on the same idea: an arrogant king announces he will only marry his equal. He falls in love with a beautiful poor peasant girl, who heals his character when he realizes she fulfills his requirement that he marry a rich woman. She is richer than he is, she tells him, because while he always wants more, she has everything she wants or needs. She has enough, in other words.

And then, to his consternation, she puts him in his place by pointing out that she will not marry him because he has just admitted that he is not equal to her. So he has to go off on a journey to figure out how to become worthy of her.

[princessofgeeks]

Thank you for the post and the ponderings. Another lovely card.

[pru]

It's such a good thing to ponder, both in the post you linked and in what you are going through. As my parents age, I know we are just a bit away from the can that they've kicked down the road for years -- how to clean out their house enough so that they can have mobility devices in it. Or worse how to move them to a more supervised space. and then too, M and I have no children -- so anything we accumulate is on us. when will enough be enough, see?
lots of insight from your post today

[aome]

My husband and I were talking about something like this last night. Having spent 2 weeks going through my dad's stuff in October, we had two reactions:

1) Getting rid of stuff feels like erasing someone's existence, and that's hard.
2) It makes me want to get rid of more of my stuff while I still have some say in it.

[pameladean]

"Enough" is a good metric. The card is beautiful. I need more clutter in my spaces, but I do not need as much as I have; and it needs to be in better order.

P.