Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Not at home again this morning… had to stay overnight after playing a late show in northern Wisconsin last night. Nice view from my hotel room in Wausau…
Over the years I’ve thought a lot about maybe trying to simplify things a bit. I’ve read books about simplification. I know many people who keep their lives simple. One house, one bank account, one job, not a lot of material things to take care of…
That is not me. Not me at all, up to this point anyway. I don’t like throwing anything away. When I get obsessed with something — I could wind up buying a lot of it, I guess. I have like 40 guitars. We own two houses. I have my main job, and I play in a band. I own a lot of “stuff”. I have at least ten bank accounts. The more stuff you have, the more upkeep you have, the more things you have to think about, and the more stress and anxiety can become part of your life. And don’t even get me started on office products. I have more pens, notepads, highlighters, staplers, calculators, etc. than anyone I know. Staples loves me.
So, I go back and forth with this. And every once in a while I get disgusted with the piles of whatever it is that I’ve created — recently it’s been shoes. And I do a purge. I just bought a bunch of new shoes and I’m gonna shuffle the deck soon getting rid of a lot of the old shoes I bought and either hardly ever used or never used at all. Then I’ll only have new outstanding shoes to wear… until I see something else I wanna try. In two years I’ll have more than I had when I did the purge. This is how it kinda works…
And when I think about simplifying… I guess I’m not 100% sold on the idea yet. I think back to times in my life when I threw something out and lived to regret it. The #1 thing I regret to this day is throwing out all my father’s 78rpm records. Ugh. Makes me sick just thinking about it. Never should have done it. I can’t believe I did it. Great music. Benny Goodman, Dorsey Brothers, Mills Brothers… I used to play those records and listen to them when I was a kid. And it was a direct connection to my father who passed when I was only 22 years old… I don’t think I’ve ever really forgiven myself for that one…
So, there’s an emotional response that is less than favorable when anyone suggests I maybe throw away the 500 pens I have in a box from when I was a Realtor in 2005?… hey, ya never know when those could come in handy…
It makes me nervous to think about simplifying. Maybe I’m happier with the complexity. My wife told me recently that I thrive on chaos… so, I can’t really disagree with that — but if that’s the case, then — how else would I feel when I look at taking the chaotic existence away?…
For crying out loud, even my thoughts on simplifying are chaotic.
So — maybe someday. Maybe someday I’ll decide I just don’t want to live the chaotic life anymore. Maybe I’ll close that bank account I haven’t used since 2006…
Maybe…
Then again, maybe not!
Simplifying isn’t very simple sometimes…