I am starting this blog because I have grown weary of the exhortations to excel and expand my life. I like a human-sized, manageable life. Some folks are made for really big things, some are made more low key. Some of us are more introverted, or have disparate interests, or don’t want to put all that time and energy into expansion. Just like shaving my legs and armpits, nobody has ever given me a good enough reason to do it.
Not only am I constitutionally unsuited to living a Big Expansive Life, it seems in some ways a symptom of the ills of capitalism gone wrong. Where consumerism and growth are everything, and quality – of life, of goods, of experience – suffers.
Also, I love typewriters. So I am experimenting with how to incorporate typing into blog posts. I don’t actually know how. And I don’t know if I will do much with this blog. But if I do, it could be a kind of salve for the wounds of our ever-expanding, ever-demanding voices in our heads.
Perfectionism is dead! Long Live The Good Enough!
I finished a letter to a young friend today, and I thought hey, this would make a good blog post. But of course I have had that thought several times since I had the idea for the blog. And I haven’t posted any of those. But I am posting this one. Not because it is EVERYTHING I WANT TO SAY HERE AND IT IS PERFECT. But it’s possibly good enough, and that is good enough for me.
