Find joy in the simplest of pleasures and you’ll never feel deprived.
UNKNOWN
I may have told this story here before, but I will tell it again. When I met my wife, I made a promise to her. If she married me, she would be materially better off, but no one would envy us. This was based on the simple mathematics of me paying rent and utilities and also my recently found love for minimalism. I offered her the simple life, and she took it. The women I dated before her were not interested in that offer. And that, Gentle Reader, is one of the tips you need to remember when finding a good woman. But I digress. . .
The misconception I want to dispel about our voluntary poverty lifestyle is that we live in a state of adversity and deprivation. This isn't true. We actually enjoy our lives very much. We have learned that God provides for your need and not your greed. We don't want much, and that is the secret of contentment. Some people have not discovered that secret which is why they are never satisfied. That is also why no one envies us. I don't care to provoke that envy either.
I have a lot of pleasures in my life. They are small pleasures. I like to point to the year 1985 as a marker because that is when I believe my life was as good then as it is today. I was a teenager, but I remember enjoying a good book, a movie, a TV show, and listening to music on my ghetto blaster boom box. Those things represented the icing on the cake, and I still enjoy them to the present day. In the pleasure category, my life has never gotten better or worse than it was in 1985. VCR tapes turned into DVDs. Cassettes turned into CDs. The phones got mobile. Ultimately, the pleasures remained the same. I love a good story and a good tune. The only variation has been in cost and delivery.
I wish all things were as good today as they were in 1985, but they aren't. We had Star Wars in 1985. Today, we have woke Star Wars. Special effects have gotten better, but the stories have gotten worse. My wife and I have taken to watching old TV shows from the old days when sanity still existed. The same goes for music. Our favorite radio station is an oldies terrestrial station that streams on the internet out of Jamestown, New York. They play Sinatra and Perry Como. If we ever lose the old stuff, it would greatly diminish the enjoyment of life for us. I don't think we are alone on this as people have taken to collecting and storing physical media again.
I have a philosophy about pleasure. I don't think pleasures increase when they get bigger. The best example I can give on this is fishing. I don't fish for pleasure because I don't eat fish. I am just an observer, and I have observed that there are three kinds of fishermen where I live. The first type is a humble fellow who fishes off a bridge, a dock, or a riverbank equipped with a bucket and a cane pole. The second type goes out on the water with an old jon boat and a rod and reel. The third type goes out on the water in a shiny $40K bass boat. I don't think the fish care. I also don't think the guy in the bass boat enjoys his fishing anymore than the fellow with the cane pole. So, why buy that expensive bass boat?
There are some who will take issue with my observations and argue that the bass boat enhances the pleasure of the activity. I know this is utter bullshit. The argument comes from the desire of these fools to convince themselves that they are somehow enjoying an elevated level of experience over the poor man with the cane pole. $40K has to buy something. Yet, when the bass boat idiot passes the cane pole fisherman, he grinds his teeth and cusses under his breath. The pleasures of fishing should be off limits to those poor fellows and restricted to those with mean$.
There is a kernel of pleasure that represents the essence of the thing. This could possibly be enhanced, but it rarely isn't. When pleasures become big, they become less pleasurable. The bass boater knows this as he goes through all the aggravation of maintaining the boat, paying his property taxes on the thing, and making those monthly payments. It isn't fair that the cane pole fellow has escaped this misery completely. This is where the status thing comes into play.
Most of the enjoyment of these elevated pleasures comes from being seen enjoying them. This is why golf has eclipsed bowling in participation. Golf is a game for snobs. Similarly, the bass boat is for the fellow who wants to display to the world that he has the means to afford a boat he doesn't really need. It isn't enough to enjoy activities or possess things. One must also be envied for enjoying them and possessing them.
I like to tell people that the best Mexican restaurant I have eaten at is Taco Bell. This causes all sorts of fits of apoplexy with people arguing that Taco Bell isn't actual Mexican food. I don't care. I'd rather eat a bean burrito from Taco Bell than from the fancy Casa de Diarrhea place. That observation torpedoes people's overblown conceptions of living the good life. I remember when the Motorola Razr flip phone was the premium phone to have. Try flipping one of those out today in the iPhone world. What was once the object of envy is now the object of derision.
This vanity is what kills the enjoyment of life. I enjoy life more today than I did in 1985 because I don't care what other people think. If anything, I take a perverse glee in offending their sensibilities on these things. I don't know if that is a sin or not. I just think people need to get over this nonsense. They would be happier if they did.
My enemies on this unofficial crusade are the marketers who go around creating a sense of deprivation in consumers. This is when the cane pole guy decides he can't fish without the $40K bass boat. He has to have the status object. This does happen. Consequently, our modern American society has so much stuff accompanied with so much dissatisfaction.
Keep your pleasures small. You will know when they have stopped being small when they stop being as pleasurable. I am an accidental birdwatcher as I started watching birds while sitting outside or on a walk. To enhance the pleasure, I got out my $20 monocular telescope that I bought for some other purpose from Amazon. Then, I dropped $10 on a laminated bird guide from Tractor Supply in order to identify the birds in my state. That is as far as I care to go on this activity. Getting a better looking glass would not enhance the experience for me as those things are pricey. I also don't care for a camera with a telephoto lens. I don't log these things or belong to some stupid birdwatching club because that brings status into the game. I just look at birds and other critters as I enjoy sitting in the outdoors.
I play the kazoo for ten minutes a day to scratch my musical itch. Playing the guitar became painful for me because of a pinched nerve in my left arm. I only played the six string for ten minutes a day. I am not a serious musician. Likewise, I play checkers because I find chess to be too complicated. These are simple pleasures that I keep simple on purpose. I can enjoy them because I don't take them or myself seriously.
I doubt the rest of the world will get a clue about small pleasures. We are outgunned by the marketers and by society. But for those who do get the clue, life is really sweet for them. If money can't buy happiness, the lack of money doesn't preclude happiness either. What is in your wallet matters less than what is between your ears. Go and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, Gentle Reader.
