This year is not what last year was, and it’s not what the previous year was either.
On a personal level, things are good. I just need to deduct politics from the equation. I have succeeded, to a degree, and I am happier for it.
I happen to be writing this post sitting in a municipal library while Susan sees our physiotherapist. We are hoping he will do for her, what he has already done for me.
This library has an interesting name. It’s the Wychwood branch of the Toronto Public Library, and it has a beautifully done interior, in a restored older building. It is so nice that it has prompted me to write this post.
Lately I am more focused on the artistic aspects of my life than at any time in the past. For instance, there is quite an artistic sensibility at work in this library. The dark finishes offset by the ample lighting as well as light from an abundance of large windows, the contrast between modern and traditional, the large open spaces, and of course, people focused on work and study, and the resulting quiet… so soothing.
In my case, artistic expression is, in some measure, after my wife and family, a source of my happiness, and it is primarily expressed in writing. To a much lesser extent I find it through photography. Ultimately, interior design and architecture are subjects that interest me.
I would love to live in a minimalist, modern, Japanese-style home, with a garden in the same style.
Unless I buy a lottery ticket and win a ridiculous amount of money, that won’t happen. Maybe… but only if I actually bothered to buy lottery tickets once in a while. So, no.
From the beginning Susan and I have purchased furnishings with good design. Some we have ended up seeing in museums in New York and Copenhagen. We have really nice modern couches in our den and living room. We like clean simple lines. We appreciate well-planned lighting. We both love art.
All these aspects of our home are ingredients in my happiness recipe.
I am sharing this with you in case it helps you in your quest for happiness, for joie de vivre.
I’ll admit that my recipe for happiness is a complicated one with a lot of moving parts, yet ultimately, and quite ironically, simplicity is definitely one of its key driving forces.
I advocate simplicity whenever I get involved in a planning discussion with clients, friends, or family.
The problem with simplicity is that making something that achieves its purpose in the most simple and efficient way, is usually more complicated and time-consuming, and requires a lot more thought than alternative approaches. I find that if a premium is placed on time, the plan will emerge quickly, but it often comes burdened with unanticipated complexity.
Less is more.
Since I had the good fortune to stumble on it earlier this year, I recommend to anyone who seems to me to have artistic aspects in their life to read Rick Rubin's The Creative Act - A way of being.
On the topic of simplicity, Rick Rubin, speaking of the thing being created, cites Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, at page 242:
"Refine it to the point where it is stripped bare, in its least decorative form yet still intact. With nothing extra. Sometimes the ornamentation can be of use, often not. Less is generally more.
"Perfection is finally obtained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there’s no longer anything to take away." [Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Terre des Hommes, ch. III, L’avion, Éditions Gallimard, p. 199 "Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher."]
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