Journeys of Simplicity

While sipping morning coffee, I read the introduction to Journeys of Simplicity: Traveling Light with Thomas Merton, Basho, Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard & Others by Philip Harnden. Thanks to Rev. Victoria Safford at the White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church for pointing out this book (hear the sermon, “The Material World,” on this theme by clicking here).

The book is a collection of lists about traveling light. Not just from the poor and famous like Merton and Bassho, but others like John Jack (1713-1773), who began life as a slave in New England but worked hard and bought his freedom.

“When he lay dying, at about age sixty, he bequethed all he owned to Violet, an elderly slave of his late master’s daughter” (presumably so she could buy her freedom):

Eight acres in the Great Fields 
and Great Meadows

a good pair of oxen
a cow and a calf

some farming tools

a Bible and psalm book 

seven barrels of cider

The  prose throughout is delightfully in line with the message – a few carefully chosen words, rich in meaning that calls to mind the practice of finding contentment with few desires. 

“Those who act with few desires are calm, without worry or fear,” said the Buddha. 

Finding delight in simplicity and meaning from living a simple life seems to me to be one of the ways that spiritual practice can lead the way back, creating a sustainable way of life on this little blue dumpling planet for the many large-brained primates gathering herein.

Harnden, though, is not a Pollyanna: 

“Do not be disappointed or deceived,” he writes. “Remember that soldiers bent on massacre may sometimes travel as lightly as monks on pilgrimage. And pilgrims themselves may bear their own peculiar baggage, their own destructive schemes.” 

I look forward to slowly digesting the lists, the tracks of other travelers also just passing through.