Time for another installment of “dubbatrubba sings the praises of ‘Gaping Void'”… it’s a monthly feature of this blog. Hugh MacLeod sends out a daily email with a cartoon-like doodle of art, and a few words of wisdom. They’re all great, and you should sign up for the mailing list on the Gaping Void website. Reading his email is often the best minute or two of my workday.
You should also read Hugh’s book Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity.
A Gaping Void post from last week struck me as particularly poignant. Check it out:
One of the things we affluent, supposedly happy Westerners suffer from, is that we like to make our lives far too complicated.
We take on far too much responsibility at work, we buy houses that are far too big for our families, we spend far too much money going out, fancy cars etc., we try to read far too many books, we buy far too many toys, the list goes on.
And then the bill comes… as it always does.
You’re much better off with a simple life.
The simple life begins not with stuff, but from the human heart.
The latter, by the way, doesn’t scale.
True happiness is an inward journey.
That’s where the real joy is.
Good luck.
Ah, Hugh, you’ve done it again. Genius… plain and simple!
So true it’s a bit uncomfortable a part of me.