The Hazards of Excess
Any item that is of value in the right proportion becomes a hazard in excess. Food we need to live, but in excess it causes obesity and discomfort. Rest we need to recuperate, but in excess it can make us dull and listless. We are biological creatures, and our health and vitality depends upon balance and moderation.
But we are driven by an economic system premised on the concept that more is always better. It is always better to be richer rather than poorer. It is always better to make more money. It is always to consume more things, have bigger homes and vehicles, to go more places, to have more experiences. It is better to read more, to know more, to do more, to conquer more. Not only is our economic system based on the concept that more is better, our culture is based on the concept that more is better. Even among the bohemain counter-culture, where accumulating stuff is looked down upon, people still want to travel more, to hike in more wild places, to try more unusual experiences.
But it seems to me that our endless pursuit of more is quite harmful and self-destructive. It is a subtle way of saying to ourselves that our lives are not good enough. It is a way of making leisure into work and self-knowledge into a an outward competition. More is not better. Better is better. Sometimes less is better. There is a certain substance to life, which is the substance of our spirit and our attention, and as we spread it more thinly we lose it. We find a million ways to distract ourselves and amuse ourselves, but we forget what it is to *be* ourselves.
It seems to me that it is not a coincidence that the sudden accumulation of more has coincided with an apparent loss in the sense of beauty and proportion. And pleasure as well. Someone who is attuned to pleasure and enjoyment will not subject themselves to endless bouts of excess, because such bouts are unpleasant. Someone with a sense of beauty will not purchase a McMansion because they find no sense of value in unused space or empty gestures of importance.
In this sense, an appreciation of beauty becomes not merely a luxury for the elite. Love of beauty has to do with being in touch with the vital forces that comprise life, understanding their health and rhythms. Beauty teaches us balance and proportion and sufficiency and gratitude. Perhaps beauty has never been more important than in our current time and culture, when the hazards of excess are pressing upon us as never before.
But we are driven by an economic system premised on the concept that more is always better. It is always better to be richer rather than poorer. It is always better to make more money. It is always to consume more things, have bigger homes and vehicles, to go more places, to have more experiences. It is better to read more, to know more, to do more, to conquer more. Not only is our economic system based on the concept that more is better, our culture is based on the concept that more is better. Even among the bohemain counter-culture, where accumulating stuff is looked down upon, people still want to travel more, to hike in more wild places, to try more unusual experiences.
But it seems to me that our endless pursuit of more is quite harmful and self-destructive. It is a subtle way of saying to ourselves that our lives are not good enough. It is a way of making leisure into work and self-knowledge into a an outward competition. More is not better. Better is better. Sometimes less is better. There is a certain substance to life, which is the substance of our spirit and our attention, and as we spread it more thinly we lose it. We find a million ways to distract ourselves and amuse ourselves, but we forget what it is to *be* ourselves.
It seems to me that it is not a coincidence that the sudden accumulation of more has coincided with an apparent loss in the sense of beauty and proportion. And pleasure as well. Someone who is attuned to pleasure and enjoyment will not subject themselves to endless bouts of excess, because such bouts are unpleasant. Someone with a sense of beauty will not purchase a McMansion because they find no sense of value in unused space or empty gestures of importance.
In this sense, an appreciation of beauty becomes not merely a luxury for the elite. Love of beauty has to do with being in touch with the vital forces that comprise life, understanding their health and rhythms. Beauty teaches us balance and proportion and sufficiency and gratitude. Perhaps beauty has never been more important than in our current time and culture, when the hazards of excess are pressing upon us as never before.
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