Thursday, October 23, 2008

Would Thoreau have a blog?

Well, answer to your question Holland, of course I'm still blogging! Just not in print, mostly in my head.

I tell you what, since I started working 50 hours a week, we moved to a place that accommodates our newly adopted Thoreau inspired-lifestyle and the fact that I have no energy remaining in my body, I'm a pathetic, lazy blogger. Yes, I know, working 50 hours a week and a Thoreau inspired lifestyle are in complete contradiction. I'm working on it. I'm also in shopping rehab.

Living simply produces hidden benefits to followers, and not the least of these is one's physical health. The stress of struggling to meet the financial burdens of a lifestyle of excessive consumption takes its toll on the human body; what, for example, is the physical cost of a daily one-hour, one-way commute? In a single calendar year, such work travel -- which is not unusual in bigger cities -- adds up to over 500 hours of time spent cramped in a shiny metal box breathing air laced with automobile exhaust.

Simply living is perhaps the best advice that Thoreau offered; as a slave in the service of the consumer economy of the modern United States, a person has precious little time to enjoy living. Voluntary simplicity offers people an opportunity to reduce the amount of time spent in mindless acquisitiveness, and frees them for more rewarding pursuits.
Michael Brooks commentary on Simple Living.

Besides, the only blog topics that came to mind this week were: how those little Halloween pumpkins give me gas and why I have to sleep with socks on my feet.

2 comments:

Ron Ward said...

My word, I thought you lost your keyboard. Why are you on the highway for so long a time. Do you have a job that requires that?

I miss your posts, keep them coming.

Ron

Holland said...

Good grief I dont even check your blog anymore and only happened upon it this time cuz the mouse slipped when i clicked on one of my favorites. I had no idea you were driving that far. Geoff used to do that. It was horrid. welcome back and thanks for bringing a smile back to my face like only you can do.