There\u2019s a useless little column-let in the Times today titled \u201cThe Joy of Less.\u201d I won\u2019t claim that I read it \u2013 but I did read the title \u2013 and now off I go on my own thoughts. It seems somehow appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The past week, I\u2019ve been sitting in a totally empty house for work. I moved a single table and a few chairs over \u2013 as well as some basic tools, a bunch of cleaning supplies, and a shelf for them to sit upon. The plan is to do a lot of work on the house before we move in. It\u2019s pretty much good to go now \u2013 but so much easier to paint without furniture. So much easier to sit in our cushy apartment and direct the contractors as they remove and replace gutters, grade the lawn, touch up the masonry, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet I sit over there \u2013 because it\u2019s my<\/strong> house \u2026 and also because there\u2019s something odd that happens to my mind with all that space around me. I find that without my usual excuses for procrastination, I\u2019m quite productive. Even with my half hour breaks for chores (mowing the lawn, sweeping a floor, cleaning a room\u2019s worth of windows) I get a lot done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I rattle around a little bit \u2013 sitting at the only table and upon the only chair on an entire 5 room floor. I\u2019ve been rising early (for me, hush ) and driving over there to start work. I walk up to the coffee shop in the morning, to one of the restaurants at noon, and back up to the coffee shop in the afternoon. One day at around 5, I tried out the local bar, sitting with the other men at the end of their workday \u2013 having a beer. I didn\u2019t feel like I fit in, nor did I particularly want to, but I was certainly welcome. I asked if they had food. The answer: \u201cWe got chips \u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomorrow I\u2019m going to drive over in the morning and leave my car there \u2013 taking the T to the airport for a business trip. It seems a little odd, but also soothing in some fundamental way. Sure \u2013 it\u2019s just a parking space now, but it\u2019s my<\/strong> parking space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we decorate, I hope to keep some of that empty space. With a house on this scale there\u2019s absolutely no need to cram it full of crap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a useless little column-let in the Times today titled \u201cThe Joy of Less.\u201d I won\u2019t claim that I read it \u2013 but I did read the title \u2013 and now off I go on my own thoughts. It seems somehow appropriate. The past week,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-bloggin","category-real-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2054,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions\/2054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}