farmdoc's blog post number 11

Earlier this week I looked through my wallet and found a MasterCard, Amex card, Bendigo Bank Cashcard, Woolworths Frequent Shopper Card, FlyBuys card, Drivers Licence, AMA membership card, Qantas Club card, Amcal card, Seniors Card, Virgin Blue Velocity card, St Lukes Heath Fund card, Medicare card, Bendigo Bank Community Saver card and Avant medical indemnity membership card. And I thought I was living a simple life, or at least I was aspiring to one. Since 1997 I’ve owned the book that started it all: Duane Elgin’s Voluntary Simplicity - Toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich; and I have re-read it – especially the parts I have underlined – each year or two since. Its many helpful quotes include: ‘He who knows he has enough is rich’ and ‘An awareness of death is an ally for infusing our lives with a sense of immediacy, perspective and proportion’. In my quest I am, I think, doing not as well as I would like, but better than most. Neither Elgin nor anyone else ever said it’s easy to live a simple life in a complex society. So maybe I shouldn’t judge my life by the cards in my wallet, for as Mahatma Gandhi said: ‘As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it’. At least I don’t own a television or a mobile phone.