Chicken Soup for the Soul

The following is an excerpt from the book “Three Men in a Boat” that I found worth sharing here.

The three men in the book decide to spend sometime in the vicinity of nature and agree upon taking a boat to the sea. They make a list of things they think indispensable. However, the infeasibility of navigating a boat crammed with all these things soon becomes clear. Following this, one of them reflects, “You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do without.”

Here is the author’s take on this statement, “I call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but with reference to our trip up the river of life, generally. How many people, on that voyage, load up the boat till it is ever in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber?

How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with a host of swell friends that do not care twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha’pence for; with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with—oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all!—the dread of what will my neighbour think!

It is lumber, man—all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment’s freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment’s rest for dreamy laziness—no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o’er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the sombre-waving rushes, or the orchids.”

While I am no promoter of a rustic lifestyle myself and am as much a slave to every day luxuries as any of you, I did find several points to reflect upon and learn from in this abstract.

Unarguably, a better part of our actions are governed by fear of what our neighbours or the society in general, might think. One may find that while a simplistic phone suits one’s needs perfectly well and that one is completely incapable of handling a phone that is smarter than oneself, he will still not hesitate before purchasing one of those hi-tech smart-phones. Why? Clearly, because the society we live in is judging people on their modernity, on their ability to spend on things they understand little about and have lesser use for; and we are fools enough to be governed by societal expectations. This pretentious nature extends in every aspect of one’s living.

We have indubitably grown too busy to be able to enjoy simple pleasures of life; be it a golden sunset by the riverside, or a quiet, starry night, or the sweet music whispered by wind. It reminds me of a verse from Davies’ famous poem, “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.”

Far be it from me to admonish modern men for whom synthetic artifice holds greater appeal than nature’s beauty. However, a change of perspective from withholding all that one might deem necessary to caressing only what one really does need, values and cares about, might just be the solution to myriad problems facing mankind. While it will surely make the boat easier to pull, and leave time to admire and be awed by the grandiose of nature’s many wonders, it is also the mantra to overcome extravagance that is threatening to ruin our future as a species.

It might be the key to the ideal society where everyone has ample and yet no one is drowned by overflowing abundance. It will allow us to lead the simplistic life that everyone desires and yet have to sacrifice it for the lumber we decide we can’t do without.

As the author himself puts it, “Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you. You will find the boat easier to pull then. You will have the time to drink life’s sunshine.”