It's such a cheap shot across the bow of materialism to head-out to the countryside of Thailand, a land of plenty where the farmers or peasants or whatever you want to call them live in simple abodes in the endless villages that dot the landscape between rice fields. A smile abounds as the farmer moto-tilling his rice field looks up with a welcoming smile, where kids skip-dance childhood's blessings on the red dirt stage of everywhere, and it seems everyone at one point of the day is engaged with sitting around talking with everyone else; and no more.
It's easy to sit on the floor of a house that appears one step away from abject poverty until your knees ache to high-heaven eating and talking and being catered to and realize this is really as good as life gets. What else were you expecting? A chair perhaps?
Whip away the romanticism and the fact is each and every one of us wants "more". As happy and content the villagers of the countryside are, and make no mistake, they are, they want more. A past populous government set up easy to get low-cost loans to help them grow their businesses and now nearby my house they protest that they cannot replay loans that bought motorcycles and mobile phones. Sound like USofA?
Anyway the point is – everyone wants more so it's no use idealizing the peasant in the countryside or another life outside perhaps religious orders. What is worth noting however – is that they have a smidgen of what my average friend has in the US and on the whole they live just as good a life. The basics of food, healthcare, education are covered. Live is good. You don't need more. You want more, everyone wants more, but you don't need more.
I've realized, after buying "more" over and over again that it really doesn't deliver. I guess all things being equal I'd rather have more – I'm not a monk (yet) – but "more" has underperformed against expectations. "Less" continues to surprise and delight.
"'more' has underperformed against expectations. "Less" continues to surprise and delight." Wow Derek. Just WOW.
Posted by: Kate | July 17, 2009 at 06:13 PM