I don’t know how long I’ve had this comic, but to have saved it many years, it must have seemed important. It was and it is. A decade ago, I thought I had the perfect title- Robin’s Rules of Order. “I hope that Robin’s Rules might provide a clear and reliable way of dealing with your possessions… Pondering the purpose and place of stuff is nothing new, but in our hyper-consumer culture, we seem to have lost our way. Continuing to go off trail is a perilous journey. The Rules are one way of getting back on track.”
I was at least slightly self-aware. One way, not the way. But I didn’t believe that. I thought is was THE WAY. How could it not be. We were awash in junk, we were deficit spending, we were hellbent on keeping up with the Jones, who were most likely, tacky.
And now? There are only crumbs left from the humble pie. It doesn’t matter to anyone other than me that less is more. Your more might be more. Or that I see needs and wants as distinct and different. That line for you might be blurry. And while a “lifestyle” uniform liberates me, for you, it’s a straitjacket.
The law of diminishing marginal utility seems the norm for me. More of whatever doesn’t usually increase my satisfaction like it does for many others. “How many things there are I do not want.” Influencers and online pushers would give Socrates a run for his drachma.
I do still believe and try to live by the principle that I’ve adopted from St. Exupèry. “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more to take away.” It is time to take this blog away. It’s been fun to write. And it’s been even better to realize that I have been wrong. Despite having said many times that my way wasn’t cast in stone, ironclad, immutable, I didn’t believe that it wasn’t the right course. I wanted it to be right. I wanted people to realize they were full. Stuffed.
That’s not what people want. So Robin’s Rules are only that. Rules for me. It wasn’t the title that was wrong. Worse than that, it was the entire premise.
So out with those crumbs. I’ve eaten abundantly, anymore would be an exert.
Adieu.