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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,643
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
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How much is enough? When I'm bored with the respective products, information, or processes.
Hmmmmm, maybe if something makes me cry and beg for mercy...now that might well be enough of whatever.
If I were in prison I might find that experience to become a matter of "enough is enough" in a very short time.
If our freedoms are being taken away by politicians, then how much is enough? Now that is a genuine question that apparently is before us today.
Turn on ANY brand of political machine - and it automatically goes to the "SPIN and LIE CYCLE" 
Yours Truly - Gregg
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 7,626
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How Much is Enough?
I don't know.... How much you got? This may be the best answer to this question. Ultimately, there is never really enough. Although there are those who will attempt to find balance and be content with that, it appears to be in our nature to take all we can get until we can't get no more. Just look around you.
sure, you can talk to god, but if you don't listen then what's the use? so, onward through the fog!
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 7,630 Likes: 28
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 7,630 Likes: 28 |
it appears to be in our nature to take all we can get until we can't get no more. Just look around you. I agree. How much is enough? Enough. It amazes me how little we really need and how few people know that.
"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain."
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
At a cemetary near my grandmother's house was a sign that said, "It is better to have and not need, than to need and not have." I have more than I need and less than I want, but wanting is what causes one to strive, no? Enough is stagnation, complacence.
My formula is this: I want to have enough that I do not feel need, but not so much that I don't want.
I've had enough of the Bush administration - I don't want any more. I don't have enough hope, I want more. I want more freedom, I want more honesty, I want more caring.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 10,151 Likes: 54
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Joined: May 2006
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nwp, I'm not sure I'll agree with you 100% on that.
I am lucky enough to have more than I need, and pretty generally more than I want. I don't feel stagnant; I feel ... content, mostly. And grateful.
I still have way more cr*p than I need/want. I still live like a middle-class American.
I don't think my contentment is so much internal as it is that I am not exposed to nearly as much advertising as the average person. I notice that if I'm around tv or magazines, I start to "want" more. That's when I put the magazine down, or walk away from the tv.
Julia A 45’s quicker than 409 Betty’s cleaning’ house for the very last time Betty’s bein’ bad
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
And I'm not sure I disagree with anything you've said, Julia. I have more than I need, that is certainly true. I don't have all the "things" that I want, but I have more than most. I'd like another guitar (or two), I own three; I'd like a new keyboard (two); a new car, another motorcycle, and lots of vacations. That last I probably do need.  I think I am mostly content, but there are occasionally things that I want that I just get because I can, and some things that I won't get because I shouldn't. I know that I am lucky, and I don't flaunt it, but an occasional pricey wine or really smelly cheese really sets me up.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 10,151 Likes: 54
veteran
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Joined: May 2006
Posts: 10,151 Likes: 54 |
To be honest, I think a lot of my urge to minimize comes from being single and having moved a lot. Any time I look around at my possessions and think "moving would be a real hassle" -- that's when I know I'm overgrown and need pruning!
Julia A 45’s quicker than 409 Betty’s cleaning’ house for the very last time Betty’s bein’ bad
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134
Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134 |
I too have much more than I need and increasingly as the years pass the wanting diminishes. I think that is fairly common.
But NWP I think it is not wanting that staves off complacency but as Julia posits contentment. The latter can be present at any level of having above survival. I have been content living in a forest getting my meals by dumpster diving. I have earned significant amounts and bought luxury. In all circumstances, it was not wanting more that drove my energies but the desire to succeed as a goal in itself, however "succeed" might have been defined at the moment.
I find that most of what I "want" isn't really me wanting anyway, it is someone telling me what I should want for whatever reason.
Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death -- Auntie Mame You are born naked and everything else is drag - RuPaul
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 218
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 218 |
Clothing.
30 shirts is enough.
10 suitable for work 5 buttoned shirts for weekends, (think hawaiian) 10 T-shirts 5 or fewer long underwear tops, bicycle jerseys, etc.
It took a while to understand that limit, but it works well for me.
10 neckties is enough. 1 tuxedo is enough. 1 suit is enough, though if I had a different career, perhaps 10 would be the right maximum number. Any more than that and I would just be feeding the moths.
1 car per driver in the household is enough (I am extravagent there, I own 3 cars for a household of 2).
Anyone brave enough to say how many pairs of shoes are enough? 10 pairs for a man, 30 pairs for a woman. (ouch, stop throwing your extras at my head)
Last edited by beechhouse; 03/07/08 10:49 PM.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,841
member
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beechhouse, you inspired me to go and count my shoes. I included the plastic crocs out on the porch and the old dusty slippers and the flipflops I left under the coffee table last night...and I'm approaching 30 pairs. Some of them I really can't or don't wear, but they are too good to discard. While I was counting, I actually picked up one pair and put it in the Goodwill bag. But today I wore a pair that I hadn't worn in a year.
So how much is enough? I don't know. When it comes to shoes....
EmmahusseinG
"I believe very deeply that compassion is the route not only for the evolution of the full human being, but for the very survival of the human race." —The Dalai Lama
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