George Carlin is still one of my favorite philosophers. His reflections on STUFF inspired me when writing Enough.
As you reflection on your life and your stuff, perhaps you’ll find this first chapter from Enough – and Other Magic Words to Transform Your Life helpful on your life’s journey or at least as you clean out your garage.
Chapter One
I can’t get no satisfaction.
Mick Jagger
The Problem
I like stuff.
When we moved in our current home, with more stuff than we could fit into the house, a lot of it went to the attic. At the time I told my wife Carrie, “If we don’t use this stuff in the first year, let’s get rid of it.” She agreed. That was ten years ago. It’s still there, plus a lot more, with added floor space. We have a hard time getting rid of our stuff. Our neighbors aren’t much different. Drive around our subdivision and you’ll see cars in driveways because garages are all full of stuff.
My neighbors and I are not alone in our acquisition and collection of stuff, our hoarding is no neighborhood peculiarity. According to George Carlin, it’s our national pastime…
…that’s what this country is all about. Tryin’ to get more stuff. Stuff you don’t want, stuff you don’t need, stuff that’s poorly made, stuff that’s overpriced. Even stuff you can’t afford! Gotta keep on gettin’ more stuff. Otherwise someone else might wind up with more stuff. Can’t let that happen. Gotta have the most stuff…
So now you got a houseful of stuff. And, even though you might like your house, you gotta move. Gotta get a bigger house. Why? Too much stuff! And that means you gotta move all your stuff. Or maybe, put some of your stuff in storage. Storage! Imagine that. There’s a whole industry based on keepin’ an eye on other people’s stuff.
Or maybe you could sell some of your stuff. Have a yard sale, have a garage sale! Some people drive around all weekend just lookin’ for garage sales. They don’t have enough of their own stuff, they wanna buy other people’s stuff.[1]
Carlin is right. We love stuff. When we want more stuff, we go looking for it, searching for it, shopping. Apparently it’s part of our nature.
Read the following from the Bible’s first book, the book of Genesis, third chapter, the story of Adam and Eve. Notice how their story is not just the tale of two people long ago but a chronicle of our lives today with insight as timely as George Carlin’s commentary.
The Text
Genesis 3: 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
Have you ever considered what Adam and Eve were doing when they got into so much trouble? As I read the story, they were shopping. The forbidden fruit was not scattered throughout the garden, not in many places, not in multiple locations, but one place, one site, one location and one location only. Perhaps they just came upon it, “Oh, look, the forbidden fruit…” or, perhaps, they were looking for something, searching, shopping. Somewhere in their dissatisfaction they thought, “If only we had something more…”
Today, if we want more, we don’t have to wander through a garden, we can go wander through a mall. The mall is a relatively new innovation. Historically, the order went like this: you had a need; you figured out what you wanted to meet the need; you figured out how to pay for it; then you shopped for the right one; and then, and only then, you bought it. Not any more, not with malls and credit cards, for malls aren’t about shopping for what you need, malls exist to help you find what you want regardless of need. Now the order is: shop, figure out what you want that you didn’t know you wanted before, charge it, get it, and later, figure out how to pay for it. Because shopping isn’t about need and instead is about some amorphous unperceived want, some undefined emptiness, if what we buy now doesn’t fill it, if what we buy gives us no lasting satisfaction, we buy something else. And now it’s even simpler, instead of going to the mall, you don’t even have to leave your home to search for what you must have that you didn’t even know you wanted – you can search online.
William Sloan Coffin described our problem this way,
There are people and things in this world, and people are to be loved and things are to be used. And it is increasingly important that we love people and use things, for there is so much in our gadget minded, consumer-oriented society that is encouraging us to love things and use people.
As I read and re-read the story of Adam and Eve, I want to scream out, “You’re in Eden! Leave the damned apple alone. Don’t you have enough? Why do you want more?” Yet, every time I read it, they don’t seem to hear me. They chase their more, their must-have, their desire above other desires, the want they perceive as need, and then all hell breaks loose. For whatever reason, whatever dissatisfaction they perceived, they had to have more. Once they saw the fruit, once it appeared good to them and was a delight to their eyes, they were sure that life with the forbidden fruit was going to be better than life without it, and life without it less than life with it.
Their problems came, simply because they knew more and only more. What they needed was another word, a magic word…
Enough
The Text Revisited
What if Adam and Eve had known the simple word enough and used it at the base of the tree of trouble? Their story would have been much different, much simpler, less painful, something like this… (I’ve left the original passage from Genesis in italics.) Genesis 3: the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise… but then she said to herself, “What are you thinking? You live in a beautiful garden. This is paradise. You have everything you need to be happy right here. You have enough.”
She talked with Adam. They contemplated what they needed and what they had. Adam affirmed, “Yes, we have enough.”
They said it together, “Yes, we have enough.”
And then the two of them walked away, happy together.
The Transformation
If Adam and Eve had known enough, and used it, their lives, their situation, and their relationships all would have been better. But they didn’t. However, just because they didn’t know enough, doesn’t mean that you can’t. The magic of enough is easily accessible. This I know, for I know people who use enough often to transform their lives and the lives of their families.
For example, my friend Jimmie Manning… Jimmie has ENOUGH as a customized license plate. He was asked, “Jimmie, would you still have that license plate if someone gave you a new Mercedes?” “Nope,” he replied, “then I’d get a plate that says, More than Enough.”
Jimmie had the plate made after reading Life is So Good!, the biography of George Dawson, a man who signed his name with an X until age 98. At 98 George learned to read and write.
George’s biographer asked him, “George, when you think of life, do you see the glass as half full or half empty?”
“I don’t see it as half full or half empty,” George replied.
“Then how do you see it?” the biographer asked.
“It is enough,” George replied. “Enough.”
Jimmie loves the book and the philosophy. Jimmie figures if George Dawson, a man who grew up black in one of the toughest times in a country’s history for a minority, and a man who was illiterate until 98 could look at life and say, “It is enough.” If this man could see life as neither half full or half empty, if he could look at life and claim enough, then so could he.
For my friend Jimmie, enough hasn’t just been an attitude, but a lifestyle – and a diet plan. Jimmie travels a lot for work, so he eats out a lot. Eating out usually means an easy road to gaining weight. Jimmie used the power of enough to limit what he ate. Instead of eating what he could, or what would make him feel good, he just ate what he needed at each meal. The Enough Diet Plan took forty-two pounds off Jimmie even while he was still traveling. Enough changed Jimmie’s life. It can change yours.
A simple word. A powerful word. Enough.
Say it now. Enough.
Say it daily. Enough.
To see the books referenced in this chapter, go to:
