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
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.