The Shoelace That Snaps: Bukowski’s Case for Living Simpler

 

Charles Bukowski’s poem “the shoelace” recommends we don’t sweat the big stuff: 

"...it’s not the large things that

send a man to the 

madhouse, death he’s ready for, or

murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood…

no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies

that send a man to the madhouse…

not the death of his love

but a shoelace that snaps 

with no time left…

the dread of life

is that swarm of trivialities…” 

Forget the headlines—USA, Russia, or the emergency of the hour. Bukowski’s point is sharper: it’s the snapped shoelace, the late bill, the broken zipper that grinds you down. 

The small stuff, multiplied by a world hooked on excess, becomes a quiet killer.

Here’s the logic: simplicity can outsmart it. 

Own less, and there’s less to fail you. 

Slow down, and a busted lace won’t ruin your day. 

Minimalism isn’t just a middle finger to the system—it’s a shield against that swarm. 

So, what’s your shoelace? And what could you ditch to keep it from snapping?

 

 

Simple Time

"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."

- Thomas Moore

Simple time. It's more flexible than regular time.

Before, when my life was busy and complex, the way I perceived time was much different than after retiring early to the simple life.

Back then I resented the time I had to spend doing things like cooking, dish cleaning, and other household chores. 

I wanted to live!

Just that we refer to them as "chores" tells us something about general attitudes towards such things.

A chore is defined as "an unpleasant or burdensome task". Not something you want to spend too much of your precious time completing.

Tasks. Another one of those words - a task is "a difficult or tedious undertaking". 

Yuck. Who wants to do those?

I was always watching the clock to see how many stretched out minutes my tasks were taking, and when I could look forward to getting back to more pleasant activities.

After simplifying, my attitude towards everything has changed, and my chores and tasks have been redefined.

Now I never watch the clock. Things take as long as they take. 

Because of this, I often enter into what is known as a flow state. This occurs when one is absorbed in and concentrating on an activity. 

Specifically, an enjoyable activity, or one that elicits passion. Could one actually look at household obligations in such a way?

When flow occurs, the result is a loss of self-consciousness and a distortion of time. Much time may pass, but instead it feels fleeting. You get lost in it.

Living simply turned my chores and tasks into something more like play.

A friend of mine used to call this Rubber Time, when the minutes and hours get all bendy and flexy according to what you are doing and how you feel about it. 

Other more relaxed cultures know more about Rubber Time than we do in western cultures ruled by an unrealistic and unhealthy work ethic. 

For those that live to work, there is only one time, and that is clock time. Tick, tick. 

We are told that this form of time keeping represents money. If you aren't working, you are wasting time.

Now I don't think about getting things done while I am doing them. I never look forward to switching to something "better" or "more fun" or more "leisurely" when they are complete.

I have come to see that essential daily activities don't actually get in the way of life, which is the way I viewed them before. 

These are the necessary foundational requirements of living.

I have come to the realization that they are life, rather than impediments that get in the way of what we are told are more important, like shopping.

The Zen masters say, "when eating a banana, just eat the banana".

I am just eating the banana, the whole banana, and nothing but the banana.

In doing so, time has become not only rubbery and relative, but also irrelevant. 

I have entered into timelessness, and am at peace with the things that must be done.

Questioning Standard Consumption Habits

“I decided to break the trend of accumulating stuff sooner rather than later. I moved to smaller homes ahead of my need. I downsized before I was forced to do so. I sorted and dispersed my things while I had the energy and the ability to either donate or sell my stuff.” 

― Lisa J. Shultz

It is always a good idea to question standard consumption habits if you have goals like saving money, toiling less, or retiring early. 

It is the standard consumption habits in consumer economies that keep us working jobs we don't like to buy things we don't need.

That usually means a lifetime of needless effort, and even if you win the prize, the results are rarely satisfying.

No one on their death bed wishes they worked more, or bought more crap.

For my entire life it has taken more work every year to maintain a standard consumer life. 

This is because the 1% increased their take of the spoils of increased worker productivity, while the people doing the work get less.

A couple of standard consumer items highlight this situation. This shows when I first entered the workforce, compared to more recently.  

Average new vehicle in 1981: $8,910.

In 2022: $48,000 (5.39 times what it cost in 1981).

Median single-family home in 1981: $62,000.

In 2022: $390,000 (6.3 times what it cost in 1981).

 

Median weekly wage in 1981: $300.00.

In 2022: $1,048 (3.49 times what it was in 1981).

Most workers have been falling behind as everything inflates wildly except wages.

The way Linda and I retired early to a simple life was by questioning every standard consumption habit.

Over the years we decided we didn't need or want: a car, TV, home stereo, BBQ, meat heavy diet, restaurant and fast foods, movies, concerts, international travel, regular holidays, kitchen gadgets, big house, domestic travel, shopping for entertainment, and most everything else that poses for "having a life" in consumer economies.

It was liberating. We found it to be more fulfilling to give up the consumer life all together and release the futile struggle to "have it all".

After that we realized we didn't need to work full time jobs that were stressful or that we didn't enjoy. 

Part time and contract jobs that were interesting and more fun paid the bills until we retired completely. 

Linda worked a relief position in a library for many years, something she always wanted to do. 

After teaching I went back to gardening, and also did a stint in environmental education working as a river rafting team leader. 

I also tried working as a chauffeur for a while, driving some of the biggest, dumbest cars to ever grace the planet. That was fun for a short time, and allowed me to meet some really nice (and generous) people. 

We can still choose to live differently. 

Standard  consumption habits have not been mandated. Yet. And simple living blogs like this one have not yet been labeled as "misinformation".

When we start to question the standard consumption habits that most take for granted as "just the way things are", we can see that they are empty, hollow promises that do not provide a lasting benefit.

It is still possible to start building a resilient, sustainable life with less wage slavery and crap collection, and with more time to enjoy each other and simply being alive.

The Great Gastsby - The American Nightmare

I have never read The Great American Novel, The Great Gatsby. However, after seeing the 2013 film version, the book has moved up my list.

What I didn't realize, is that the novel is a cautionary tale, not just a celebration of The Jazz Age. 

The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, had spent time with the wealthy of 1920s New York City. What he witnessed became the basis for his novel, and it is not a glowing endorsement.

Like his first novel, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby was about love and greed, including the love of greed, and someone who was greedy for a love lost.

Both novels made the author one of the great observers of the culture of wealth, extravagance and ambition that was born during the Roaring 20s, the last time income inequality was as great as it would be again 100 years later (humanity = slow learners). 

Rather than celebrate the riches, Fitzgerald warned his readers of the dangers of consumerism and materialism. He saw how The American Dream rapidly morphs into The American Nightmare.

One film critic said of the film version I watched:

"For all the gimmicks, flamboyant celebrations, and intrusive flourishes, it is loud and boisterous, but ultimately empty. 

Gazing at the spectacle, you can't help but think it will eventually all add up to something, but it never does."

That seems accurate for the most part in my experience. However, it describes more than the film. It also describes the world depicted in the film.

The job of desiring more stuff never ends, and is ultimately empty. 

You hope all that stuff will eventually add up to something, but it never does. 

The Great Gatsby highlights how a person can have every material possession, and still be unhappy. 

Ultimately it shows us that time and love are the most precious commodities in this life, and no amount of money will buy either one.

On a separate note, The Great Gatsby will go into the public domain as its copyright ends on January 1, 2021.

 

Seasonal Neighbours And Nature's Calendar

As much as possible I like to live without clocks, watches, day-timers, and calendars of any sort. I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants. 

You don't need a calendar if you live close to nature and go slow enough to notice what is going on around you. Besides letting you know everything from when to plant to when to lay up stores, it is also soul soothing to experience.

Take our seasonal neighbours that flew in recently. Every year around this time, Canada geese drop in to the field across the road to muster. They eat, nap, eat, nap, poop, flap their big wings, and prepare for their southerly migration. 

After lounging in the field all day, dusk hits and they alight in a noisy notice of their short flight to a nearby lake where they spend the night.

The arrival of the geese coincides with subtle colour changes in the forest, amongst other signs that Nature's cycles are moving on, and will do so with us, or without us. 

Most notable and potentially distressing, is the drop in temperature, and the slow slide into the coming darkness. We have already lost 3.5 hours of daylight since summer solstice. 

On the other hand, we have 3.5 hours more sunlight now than we will have on winter solstice. 

I am also grateful for the pile of wood we have laid up in the garage for winter, and for the fact that there are only 182 day/night cycles to go until spring equinox! 

Our temporary honky neighbours will most certainly move on before the really cold weather comes. I would go with them, if I could, but I can only fly for about 2 meters at a time and it would be hard to keep up.

Flap, flap, flap!

Instead I will stick around these parts, clean our wood stove, and look forward to the first cozy fire that will inevitably come shortly after the geese leave.

Happy Fall/Spring.

Getting Off Mechanical Time

Grandma had a Cronos clock on her mantelpiece - tick-tick, tick-tick... Time passed more slowly there.

The clock is one of the oldest human inventions. It is also one of my least favourite.

I have always dreaded the tiny tick of gears and whirring mechanisms, as well as the glow of digital time lords. One of my earliest memories is of sitting in my grandmother's neat and orderly living room. The only sound was the tick-tick of the clock on the mantelpiece. Wanting to be playing outside, a second passed in that living room much slower than a second running around out in the cool air of the yard.

For as long as I remember I have been trying to rip the hands off the time tyrant's mechanized time-bots. I am not built to live according to mechanically measured minutes. I am not a machine - I am an animal. I would rather rely on the internal biological clock, and the cues that nature constantly gives us.

"The mechanical clock dates from the 14th Century... The machine that mechanized time did more than regulate the activities of the day: it synchronized human reactions, not with the rising and setting sun but with the indicated movements of the clock's hands: so it brought exact measurement and temporal control into every activity, by setting an independent standard whereby the whole day could be laid out and subdivided. 

"The measurement of space and time became an integral part of the system of control that Western civilization spread over the planet.

- Lewis Mumford

Culturally, there are many, many different ways that humans experience time. Most are very different from our artificial and imposed time structure. My own belief is that things will happen when they need to happen. You can't organize a modern, capitalist organization with this particular view of time? Oh well.

Nature operates off the clock, the movement of celestial bodies probably being the closest thing to a mechanized, dependable schedule. Otherwise, things happen when they happen, without measured time. And it all seems to turn out fine.

What a joy to sleep when tired, and eat when hungry. We have dropped the usual designations for meals, because what do you really call it when you eat breakfast at 4:30 pm?

Now we just call them all "meals", or if we need to distinguish one from the other, "meal one", "meal two", and (if necessary), "meal three".

I like not knowing what day of the week it is (that's right, I have a problem with calendars, too). Sometimes it gets so good that I lose track of the month, while being lost in just being. Amazingly, things continue to happen in a somewhat orderly, if unpredictable, manner.

"If victory over nature has been achieved in this age, then the nature over which modern humans reign is a very different nature from that in which humans lived before the science revolution. Indeed, the trick that humans turned and that enabled the rise of modern science was nothing less than the transformation of nature and of their perception of reality. 

The paramount change that took place in the mental life of people, beginning during roughly the 14th Century, was in our perception of time and consequently of space."

- Joseph Weizenbaum

It is good to discover the joys of living an unmeasured life free from the endless sweep of Cronos' influence. Off the clock, time is no longer a destructive, all-devouring force. Rather than moving through fragmented time segments, like an endless staircase that only goes in one direction (toward death), one moves as if through a river.

Life flows effortlessly from one moment to the next. And the next...

To get off mechanical time is to free yourself to fully experience yourself as an integral part of the natural world. Beat the clock. Be free. Whenever possible.

Acetami-No-Fun

Acetaminophen is one of the most used drugs in the world. It might be one of the most abused drugs, too. People pop pain pills by the handful. Many people die every year from over the counter pain medication. Even taken as recommended, acetaminophen can have adverse affects.

Research participants in a recent study viewed 40 photographs. Those who took the pain relieving drug rated all 40 photographs less extreme than those who took the placebo. The highs were not as high, the lows not as low.

“People who took the pain reliever didn’t appear to know they were reacting differently,” the study leaders said. “Most people probably weren’t aware of how their emotions may be impacted when they take acetaminophen."

As alt. country queen Lucinda Williams sings in her song "Joy", "You took my joy, I want it back."

I knew over the counter medicines had some serious drawbacks, but I didn't know dulling down life was one of them. Even more reason to continue my own personal study.

For the past year I have been experimenting with non-steroidal pain relievers. I was used to taking them without hesitation, mostly for headaches. Then I began to learn more about these seemingly innocuous little pills. My project was to see if I could live without them.

I have been pleased with the results.

Now when I get a headache, going to the pill bottle is down on the list of things to do, a last resort. The first thing I do is try to pinpoint the cause of the pain. I find it is usually associated with the following conditions:

• lack of sleep
• not enough to eat
• stress
• dehydration

Instead of reaching for the pill bottle, I address the underlying condition that I have self-diagnoseed. As a result I have cut my own pill popping by almost 100%. 

Natural remedies that work for my headaches are:

• time - most headaches go away on their own
• ensuring I am well fed and hydrated
• relaxing/napping
• massaging shoulders and neck
• stretching/yoga

Medical health practitioners agree that caution is warranted.

“Overuse of the medication can harm your liver. I recommend that if you can tolerate mild pain for a short time, it may be better to live with it rather than immediately try to eliminate the problem." - Dr. Paul Ringel

Pain is no fun. But neither are complications from treating pain, like losing your joy.

Thinking of pharmacuitical alternatives to acetaminophen? They have potential negative side effects as well. Try to treat naturally, and return to fun as soon as you can without having to worry about your liver. Or death.

Having said that, sometimes headaches can be caused by serious conditions. If your headache persists, or worsens, even with treatment, it is probably best to consult your care provider post haste.

Slowly, Slowly!

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!

One of Japan's most popular poets, Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) during his lifetime wrote over 20,000 haiku. Always poor, he used the dialects of the mountain villages where he lived to write his whimsical poems.

His works had a childlike simplicity and celebrated the ordinariness and the occasional sacredness in daily life, always finding delight in the little creatures of this world.

Issa wrote 54 haiku on the snail, 15 on the toad, nearly 200 on frogs, about 230 on the firefly, more than 150 on the mosquito, 90 on flies, over 100 on fleas and nearly 90 on the cicada.