Posted on 26 Jan, 2012 -
The joys of austerity and a really good pork pie
Now the Labour party itself is joining us in tightening our belts
Could the selling off our assets be the answer to our bank balance and our head space?
Could the new era of austerity actually take us back to a renewed appreciation of things like quiet contemplation… and apples and pork pies… ?
Dear Reader
I noticed in the paper last week that the Labour party is forcing local parties to handover their headquarters buildings. Its finances are precarious, apparently, and it needs to find ways of generating extra cash.
My first thought on reading this was whether this act of turning to property to generate more cash might signal further falls in property prices.
If you have property to sell, maybe this is the time to try and sell it - before more and more people are forced to liquidate their assets? Prices are, I believe, still overinflated. And is it possible that those at the top of our society know something about the way property prices are headed? Can they sniff the smell of higher interest rates or further recession in the air?
Get cash by selling your assets?
The Labour party, of course, are not the only ones worried about their “precarious finances”. And perhaps more of us should follow their example and turn to selling off some of the assets we accumulated during the good times to help us weather the bad.
That old exercise bike or halogen oven could get you a chunk of cash if you sell it on eBay or Gumtree or the local paper. And just think what you could do with the space!
Amazon also make it incredibly easy to sell off your old books online. You don’t have to take a photo - just put in the ISBN number.
Stripping away the excess and getting back to basics
There is even something positive, perhaps, in this stripping away of excess. Cleaning up our lives… Cleaning up our minds…
And it is a question that comes to me often (as I wonder how my bank account could possibly have been debited by 400 pounds in the last three days): What do we really need?
Our most important need, perhaps, is for a shelter. Four walls and a ceiling to keep us warm and dry. A place to feel safe. A haven. A home.
”Your house is your larger body.
It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream?and dreaming, leave the city for grove or hilltop?”
Kahil Gibran, The Prophet
We also need sustenance. For man, perhaps, is first an animal and the main drive of any animal’s life is to feed and survive.
Is it even possible that the meals we sit and face three times a day have become too easy to come by? There is often little satisfaction these days in providing. No savouring of pleasures rare.
I will always remember, for example, my grandfather describing the joy of eating an apple or a pork pie ‘in the olden days’ when money and fine food was so much more scarce.
Has so much wealth and security given us so far to fall?
And then, after food and shelter and love (for even the animal needs love), what we need is all the human things on top : adventure, pursuit, achievement… The will for ascension… for pride.
A good job, of course, can bring us satisfaction. Money can bring a sense of autonomy and pride. Yet it is important these days to remind ourselves how little wealth we really need to be happy or to survive.
“The secret of happiness,” said Socrates, “in seeking more, but in developing a capacity to enjoy less.”
And one can imagine the happiness that a man like him may have felt as he sat contemplating in his cave.
It is very easy to forget this when we feel worried about how we will make ends meet… stressed about losing our job… stressed about the state of the economy and the price of just the basic things in life such as water bills and electricity and even washing powder and coffee…
We have become used to so much comfort and security that we panic about its possible absence or decline. Yet we are man. And man, above everything perhaps, is brilliant at adapting.
Embracing the new era of austerity
This new era of austerity and reduced security is perhaps something we need to embrace. Acceptance rather than fear will help us in our survival.
Perhaps it will even make us happier? As the Dalai Lama says:
”If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements.”
Or to quote Henry David Thoreau:
“We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.”
Best wishes
