Enough again already

We've talked more than a few times about the idea of "enough." If we're going to get serious, as we think we should, about shifting from constantly wanting "more" to producing "better," because we can't produce "more" sustainably until we get some of the replicators off the Enterprise. (Are we sure how they work?) Many folks would say that we have more than enough books in our personal library. (In weak moments, we might agree.) However, there is always another book that we want, or convince ourselves we need. Conversely, it seems reasonable, even in Minnesota, to assume we can only wear, or take off, so many clothes. If our closets are more overflowing than our bookshelves, do we have "enough" clothes for four seasons? Do we need "more?" Could we get along just fine with fewer, but better? If we have too much perishable food at any one time, we end up throwing out what would have been perfectly good food if we had consumed it in a timely fashion. (By the way, last night's chicken soup was better than usual, and, although it didn't cure us, we found that one bowl was "enough.") Nature often seems profligate (see dandelion seeds etc.). Does this pine tree have "enough" cones; are there excess cones; why do the other trees nearby (also pine) not have any cones?

pine tree heavy with cones    © harrington

Sometimes (always?), what seem like simple questions aren't. Or at least there aren't simple answers. In part, we believe that's because we have a tendency to use words imprecisely. Two rowdy dogs are often told "enough," when the speakers actually mean "that's way more than enough, stop what you're doing before we totally loose it with you ruffians." The extended local forecast is making reference to frost, freeze and flurries in the foreseeable future. It won't be too many months before some of us will have had "enough" of Winter (by which we mean that we're sick of it and will Spring please come RIGHT NOW). Maybe we need to study what Todd Boss has to say on the subject.

 frost, freeze, flurries?          © harrington

It Is Enough to Enter

By Todd Boss 

Read the Q & A

the templar
halls of museums, for

example, or
the chambers of churches,

and admire
no more than the beauty

there, or
remember the graveness

of stone, or
whatever. You don’t

have to do any
better. You don’t have to

understand
the liturgy or know history

to feel holy
in a gallery or presbytery.

It is enough
to have come just so far.

You need
not be opened any more

than does
a door, standing ajar.

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