I believe that among the greatest challenges we face are the choices we must make as we build a material life around ourselves. Society, particularly western society, would like us all to believe that more is better. I think of Malcolm Forbes’ quote, “he who dies with the most toys wins,” and I wonder how this mentality affects the soul, the heart, and the emotional stability of the mind? Do toys, and stuff, and clutter bring peace of mind? I think not. We must consider the question of whether we own our possessions, or whether our possessions own us. Yvon Chouinard remarked, “The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life; it’s so easy to make it complex.” And we live in a world of increasing complexity. While technological innovation brings with it the promise of easy living, the reality is anything but.
Of all the creatures on this Earth, only humans live in a world entirely of their own creation, and only humans suffer from mental afflictions on a grand scale. Few, if any, species on Earth can thrive in a rapidly changing environment. Species evolve, generally, over vast lengths of time to exist in harmony with the biotic and abiotic elements of the world around them. There is every reason to believe that a species that rapidly changes the environment around itself will suffer. I think many people think of evolution as it pertains to the physical characteristics of a body, but what of the mental characteristics? What happens to the mind when it cannot evolve quickly enough to adjust to a rapidly changing environment? My guess is mental illness, among other things. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in sixth Americans is on a psychiatric drug. For many of us, the question used to be, “what do I do with my life?” Increasingly, among young members of our society, the question seems to be, “what am I?” I believe it is difficult to determine what you are if you cannot comprehend the environment within which you exist.
The choice to live simply, the choice to acquire fewer material possessions, the choice to turn away from the technologies that create distance between the human and nature, the choice to establish a greater connection with the community around us, these are choices that bring peace of mind; choices that bring the mind closer to the natural world in which it evolved to exist. The “rat race,” the idea of “Keeping Up with the Joneses,” that all may fuel the Gross Domestic Product, but it does not promote Gross Domestic Happiness. As the mysterious, all-knowing people from the island of They, say, “billionaires are the loneliest people in the world.” And as George Strait sings, “I ain’t never seen a hearse with a luggage rack.” In short, there is more to life than money and stuff and all things new and shiny.
With these thoughts in mind, I was intrigued by the life of the gaucho, as described by Charles Darwin in his book, “The Voyage of the Beagle.” The gauchos were then, and are still today, people of the land, needing few possessions to be content. I admire this quality in people. I have learned more of the way of the modern-day gaucho through an Argentine friend of mine who has spent time with them in Patagonia. The artwork here was drawn from one of his photographs. To me, the scene reveals one extreme of modern human existence, the simplest extreme. From here, we must choose how many of the extravagances of the human material kingdom to integrate into our way of living. Each item we embrace, each technological innovation we adopt, brings with it an increasing level of complexity that, while seemingly desirable, may very well detract from the quality of our own lives.
Chris Muhl Art 