Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More




Paper Clip

Napa, California, USA

January 9, 2008



I am indebted to Kenneth Yamamoto who inspired this conversation.



Some time around now (it may have been closer to February 2005 but nonetheless some time around now)  something happened which shifted the context for my life from happenstance  to creativity and intentionality.

I'd completed everything on my to do  list. I had some free time on my hands. It seemed like the ideal time to get around to one of those projects I've always got on the back burner  but never seem to have the time to begin. So I chose one of them, the simplest one. The project I chose was to start over - to start everything  over.

Then I stopped. I had second thoughts. "Everything?"  I mused. "Hmmm ... is it even possible? to start everything  over?".

What happened was in a burst of inspiration, in a flash  I saw if I acted fast inside of a perfect launch window  which had suddenly appeared, I could indeed complete the past, move on, and start anew. I saw it's possible.

In essence what I did, as an act of declaration, was to take this opportunity to press Click here then consider your life rebooted - so to speakClick here then consider your life rebooted - so to speakClick here then consider your life rebooted - so to speak and reboot my life  - so to speak.

Into this new life I'll bring nothing I don't choose, nothing I don't acquire deliberately, nothing which serves no forwarding purpose, no items which simply take up room  while providing no utility. I'll accept no garage sale  gifts and no tchotchkes. I'll have nothing here I didn't purposefully select, nothing that shouldn't  be here - not one item of clothing, not one kitchen utensil, not one pen or pencil, not one paper clip.

I've determined my life is given simply because I'm alive. That's enough for me. It touches, moves, and inspires  me just to be here. I'm excited by things simply because they are. I've got no desire to accumulate, to amass in order to score kudos  in the world.

While I've developed sophisticated tastes as well as a deep appreciation for the finer things in life, I've decided all the stuff  which gathers around my life from now on should be in service to my life, not the other way around. I don't want to have to deal any more with high maintenance items which demand my attention and my time long after the "gotta have it"  whim to acquire them is gone. I don't want to lose any more precious time servicing inanimate objects which somehow simply glommed on  to my life when I wasn't watching, wasn't concentrating, was asleep, or was looking the other way.

So if I do bring in a paper clip there'll be a use for it. And if there isn't a use for it I'll not have it. If it comes into this space it won't interfere with its consciousness, with it being an appropriate place for my rebooted life to start anew in. Rather, it will be in service  to its consciousness, it will take its cue from its appropriateness, it will enhance its functionality, it will support and assist and pragmatize its workabi1ity.

The way I see it, if I make sure there's a proper place for the paper clip, if its location is well known in my new space, (that is, if indeed I do bring it into my new space at all), there'll be more free time for me, undistracted, to be with you.



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