My To Don't Do List

The problem with To Do Lists.

“My to-do list is so long that it doesn't have an end; it has an event horizon.“

- Craig Bruce

Do people still keep Job Jars in the kitchen, perpetually filled with scraps of paper that itemize things that must be done? I don't know, but I am sure that the To Do List is still in popular use.

There is no lack of things to do, and we like to keep track of all of them. We maintain day timers with each day's square stuffed with important items that must be done (including weekends). We might have so many To Do lists that we need a master list of those lists.

If you are trying to downshift to a less busy life there is nothing like making a To Don't Do list. When making such a list for the first time let yourself go - if you think it, write it down regardless of how "silly" or "impossible" it may seem. Brainstorming is fun.

There will always be people that will try to get you to do things. They will use you, abuse you, and accuse you, if you say NO and won't play their game. It is important to protect yourself from this onslaught. It is important to "resist much, obey little".

A To Don't Do List can help you "re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book", and "dismiss whatever insults your own soul".

I have taken Walt Whitman's advice because I want my very flesh to be a great poem. So here is my collection of things I have dismissed after a few decades of re-examination.


To Don't Do List 

1. Buy stuff I don't need.
2. Go places I don't need to go.
3. Try to keep up with others in an endless competition.
4. Work for someone else more than I need to.
5. Look to a product or someone else to solve my problems.
6. Clutter my home with needless things.
7. Try to please other people.
8. Hold a grudge.
9. Spend time around people who bring me down.
10. Worry about anything.


It is easier and more satisfying to not do things that are harmful to you. There is no shortage of them, so you have lots to choose from. What is on your To Don't Do List?

“A lot of us think we're invincible... but we have to start putting ourselves on the to-do list.”

- Giuliana Rancic 

While You Live, Shine

Shining brightly is important for children
and other living things.

Music has always existed in the Universe. The planets themselves are constantly singing a celestial tune. Written music has been around for substantially less time, about 2000 years.

The oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation is the Seikilos epitaph. It was found engraved on a tombstone not far from the ancient city of Ephesus in western Turkey.


The song uses ancient Greek musical notation and the melody is recorded along with lyrics. While the tune is interesting, it is the lyrics that really appeal to me.

While you live, shine.

Have no grief at all.

Life exists only for a short while,

and time demands its toll.

Not much has changed in the area of human needs over the past two millennia, and the lyrics of the Seikilos epitaph's song are as bang on in 2013 as they were in the first century. 

Live fully now. Quit wasting time on things that don't make you happy. And, get on with it.

Please Remain Calm

I just heard that housing has never been as unaffordable in British Columbia as it is today. It now takes, the radio announced, 73% of the average household income to pay for the house. And if you're a renter that worrisome news is also for you. The trouble and doubt is enough to make a person panic.

The European Union is in as deep of trouble as North America, and the Canadian dollar is dropping like teeth at a hockey game. Unemployment continues to mount. The "jobless recovery" makes one wonder who is recovering, and what they are ripping off to achieve it. Who are the people that are buying all these expensive houses? Getting a job? As The Cars sang in the 1980's, "It's all messed up."

The mess that BP and Haliburton have made of the Gulf of Mexico continues unabated. The last thousand year old trees are helicopter-lifted out of our forests while the wildlife that used to live there sits at the side of the logging road with a guitar case open singing the Homeless Blues. I can feel the hysteria rising in me like the mercury rising in a thermometer in the arctic.

"When in trouble, when in doubt - run in circles, scream and shout," was a little ditty that my Mom liked to say when when we were kids. "What! Meatloaf and peas again!" we would cry and protest. But, of course, she was being sarcastic. She did not want us to panic, nor should we have.

Panic leads to worse problems and is not helpful in providing solutions. It is the mob's modus operandi. I do feel like screaming and shouting, and gathering a pitch-fork carrying mob complete with burning torches and catchy slogans - "Capitalism is wrecking the planet, when are we gonna ban it?" But I will remain calm, and so should you.

At the very least, we should not all panic and get hysterical at the same time. Now is the time to stick together, those of us in the bottom 90% of world wealth, and look after each other. It is the time for action, not hysteria. Time for cooperation, kindness, and creative thinking.

Together we are strong, and regardless of how much the top 10% has, there are more of us. Way more.

We have the power. Let's use it. Don't panic - problem solve.