Keurig and Karaoke
Today\u2019s thought was a tough one only because I have so very many things weighing on my mind and heart this week it was hard to single out just one. There\u2019s a word for that\u2014confusion\u2014yes, that\u2019s it. I\u2019ve had a lot of confusion lately and confusion is never a comfortable state of being, is it?
And to add insult to injury, if I have any natural gifts (which around here is an ongoing matter of debate) then one of them would definitely be what some call \u201cconnectedness,\u201d or to put it another way, the ability to perceive connections between seemingly disparate things. I\u2019m the \u201cbecause a butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon a hurricane hits the east coast\u201d guy. Someone like me never has to have a religion tell me that \u201ceverything is one.\u201d For me that\u2019s just Tuesday.
Now, true confessions, this connectedness thing is one of the reasons why as a designer it sometimes looks like I\u2019m pulling off magic tricks when I come into your home and \u201csolve\u201d the riddle of your design problems. One of my clients was just talking about this. You invite me in to somehow make the kitchen better and a half an hour later I\u2019m standing in the driveway trying to explain why the real issue is the mailbox is the wrong color.
So here\u2019s the problem with connectedness. It\u2019s about juggling a lot of information all at the same time. And when there are a lot of balls in the air it doesn\u2019t take much for order to turn to confusion. And when that happens I, the connectedness guy, I need to throttle back the information flow. It\u2019s probably why Tina and I live, and revel in living, such an intentionally simple, and fairly quiet life. For us, less is usually better. Less is always more.
And I fully admit, such statements reflect first world problems. So I\u2019m trying not to whine about it but I do need to do something about it. Only in times of great abundance do we find ourselves invoking the phrase, \u201cLess is more.\u201d
\u201cLess is more\u201d is all about choosing quality over quantity. It\u2019s about throttling down, filtering, focusing. Is it really any surprise that with the advent of the Information Age came the advent of the Attention Deficit age? Tapping the brakes may be our next great cultural hurdle.
We have this little local newspaper called the Acorn that gets dropped on our driveway. I enjoy reading it over breakfast. Reading newsprint makes me feel like I\u2019m living in a simpler time. The Acorn is only about 12 pages cover to cover, and it struck me this week that before I finished my coffee I actually got to the last page \u2026 and then that was it. No more news. The End. It\u2019s as if this little paper was giving me permission to put it down and move on.
That\u2019s not the world we live in. Pick any topic and you can literally fill your life 24/7 with nothing but new information about it. That\u2019s amazing, but it can so quickly consume us.