I just saw this movie about a man who has clearly left his moneyed life to live a simpler, more meaningful life. It has circulated with me for days, not because I am moving in that direction, but because I am filled with sorrow, at times, because the disparity between the haves and the have-nots grows larger by the minute. My friend and I had an engaged discussion about this: having grown up poor, what does it mean to now lead the privileged life? We recognize we are the haves and would never go back, yet we know what we acquired by having less growing up. It made us resourceful, resilient, capable and appreciative of being alone. It made the small items we received huge and wonderful. It also made us, at times, uncomfortable with our adult lives, which is not so bad, because the excesses we have are truly that--too much. How does one make peace with so much, when you look around and see so many who have so little? There is no answer to this.
A friend once asked me, when my children were young, how can you be a person with money and keep your children from being spoiled. They way we did it was for them NOT to go everywhere, not to get everything, but still, it was not easy. It was not perfect. Nor was it perfect to grow up poor.
But in this movie, the main character clearly had money at one time, and left his family of origin to live a quiet, simple life, where he had great pleasure. I could not go there, but still, there is an allure in discarding, getting rid of, seeing less can be more. At the end of the day, money, objects, trips, all pleasurable, do not make one happy, particularly when you are doing all of these things and you look around, there are too many people who have been left behind.
I do not wish to be the character in the film, though I do admire and enagage in appreciation of the smaller and simpler beauties in life. I wish we did not live in a life of either or, since EXCESS and HAVING TOO LITTLE both are problematic. I wish for a better world where the rich do not get richer and the poor, poorer. I remember having so little, and it was hard, but I also know the appreciation of those moments when my Dad took me to a movie or bought me a new winter coat. Like the character in the film, I thought I was getting something precious in the world. The character in the film, in his small habits and routines, felt that way. How many people can say that? Not many! And that is sad.
