That sounded like ‘it’s hard to be humble’. This has nothing to do with that classic song.

I think one of my most important tasks is to simplify everything. More accurately, the goal is to divest in large measures.

It’s something I am really excited about. It’s only through a lifetime of well-developed reflexes that this does not come naturally.  A good example is the garden, which continued to grow (NPI).  So I planted more. I made sure there was always something in bloom during the year and in the winter, there was interesting ‘structure’.  The plants grew closer together. The weeds became more intertwined with the plants. It took more time to keep from becoming one tangled mass. (This is starting to sound like a scene from an all-time favorite movie, “Being There” with Peter Sellers. But it’s true.)  All it took was neglecting it for a few weekends and the cost to reclaim it was huge. While the neglect is linear, the effort to repair grows exponentially. So I’m taking things out. I’m creating space between the plants and bushes that can be mulched and the weeds dispatched with Roundup or with a few simple instructions to a Honduran gardener. The same concept applies to life.

I’m running into lots of other people who have come to the same conclusion. I don’t remember getting this idea from anyone else, though. I certainly didn’t get it from TV, the internet or any of the advertising that permeates our lives. They are all about buying more and having more. It’s a habit we’ve grown up with. But at the core of many faiths, including genuine Christianity, is the idea that things aren’t important. People and ideas are important.

While it involves swimming upstream, it will take me to the source.