This
mother's day I decided to share my artistic talents (LOL) and make a
card, rather than buy one. As I put the card together, I realized I
would need some glue. There used to be a glue stick in a drawer of my
desk organizer so I went to retrieve it. To my surprise, the drawer was
so full I had a hard time getting it open.
This
is what I found from forty years of collecting clutter in one small
drawer of what we call an "organizer:" pencils, pens, business cards
(some are mine from the 90's and dozens are from other people), piles of
membership cards (three from one organization for 2020; two sent me
before I joined), clamps, batteries, old Ford stamps, souvenir golden
shoes in a pan (writing on the package in Hindi), random telephone
numbers, cough drops, typewriter correction tape, I-Slice (CD Opener),
Liquid Paper, matches, staple remover, thumb tacks, magnifying glass,
random buckle, masking tape, pin back buttons ("Create a Department of
Peace", "No Food Tax" and "Do Justice, Seek Peace, Build Community")),
beaded key chain, broken beaded necklace, beaded pen holder, letter
opener, gummed labels, ruler, highlighters, magic markers, Scripto
leads, broken stapler, staples, instructions for the telephone, paper
clips. There was no glue stick!
Looking
at all that stuff reminded me of an experience with a young friend. We
were at a camp together and occupied separate rooms a few doors away
from each other. Going to his room, I was upset by the mess I
encountered. Clothes were strewn all over the room, the bed was unmade;
it looked like a tornado had been there. I said to him, "You know, a
cluttered room is a sign of a cluttered mind." I'm sure if he were to
see my office today, and the drawers of my organizer, he would remind me
of my remark.
I've been reading Land of the Burnt Thigh
by Edith Eudora Kohl. It tells the story of two young women
homesteaders settling on the South Dakota prairie between Pierre and
Presho. It's helping me remember some of the challenges and difficulties
the settlers faced, simply to put down roots; to satisfy the basics of
food, water and shelter. At the same time, one wonders if it would have
been easier if these early homesteaders had approached the challenge
with a different attitude and mind set, similar to that of the original
inhabitants. Why one can't learn to exist in harmony with the natural
world, instead of insisting on dominating it, is a question we European
immigrants still need to answer, should we wish to survive the present
and future environmental crisis.
Native
Americans give us clues about how to live in harmony with the natural
world, without a lot of "stuff.". But they are not alone. I marveled at
my friends in India, when I first watched them brush their teeth in the
morning with twigs. None of them had toothbrushes that came packaged in
throw away plastic. Little did I know then the twigs had an element that
acted like aspirin, so they cleaned their teeth as well as got an added
medication. Or how refreshing it was to eat off of a banana leaf, with
one's hand. No dishes or silverware to buy or wash. Just put the used
leaf where the cow or the goat will find it.
One
of the characteristics of those early days in South Dakota, retained to
a large extent in many of our rural communities, was the idea of mutual
aid. If you needed to move to a new tar paper shack, someone with a
wagon would come and help. If you were caught in a snowstorm, the
nearest home would welcome you and provide hospitality. If there was
only one piano for miles around, it could be transported to where it was
needed. It was a concept, "sharing," that increasingly got lost in a
materialistic, consumer society, Back then, not everyone needed
everything.
There
was a person by the name of Vinoba Bhave who started a movement in
India after the death of Gandhi. It was called the Bhoodan or "land
gift" movement. It was a voluntary effort where those who had land were
asked to contribute one tenth of the land they owned for the landless
people in the country. If you had one hundred acres, you were asked to
contribute ten. If you had ten, you were asked for one. Over the course
of twenty years, four million acres were collected by Vinoba and his
followers and distributed to the landless.
I
was present when two of those followers, Krishnamal and Jaganathan,
convinced an exceedingly rich landowner to sell several acres of his
property to the area landless at a price they could afford. The
landowner had pictures of his grown children on the mantle in his
palatial home, standing by their Mercedes and Rolls Royce vehicles in
Europe. The palace area was surrounded by a high stone wall with glass
embedded at the top.
The
owner had left some of his far-away land fallow the year before. The
homeless had planted it and just as they were to harvest it the owner
had it plowed under. Sometimes goons were sent to harass and beat the
landless. Krishnamal and Jaganathan approached this wealthy man on the
poverty or wealth of his soul. When the agreement was concluded, we
celebrated with the landless that evening, with singing and dancing and
shared joy.
What
is useful in my organizer drawer I'm going to share. What is clutter,
I'm going to recycle or remove. What I'll try to remember better is the
phrase, "Live Simply that Others Might Simply Live." It seems an
especially appropriate mantra for our time.
Carl Kline
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