Is Jack, the Washington DC lawyer who is presently engaged in disposing of (nearly) all of his worldly goods, a sage for our times?
Jack began his journey to enlightenment last June when he grew tired of being mired in “an ever-expanding invisible chain of hopeless materialism.” As recounted on his blog, Jack decided to “stop living a life of excess, materialism, and unnecessary stress in order to gain something much more valuable: unencumbered, simple happiness.” He decided to do the following:
1. Dispose of my townhouse.
2. Get rid of my existing consumer debt.
3. Arrange to sell/give away most of my possessions.
4. Have enough saved so that I can earn a certain amount a year in interest.
Jack’s progress is chronicled here. It seems that the reduction of his debts is going rather well, while the more dramatic goals – selling his house, and leaving his law firm – have yet to be tackled. Jack has, however, burnt his Harvard Law Degree, a ceremonial act that you can watch by clicking this YouTube link.
There is something beguiling about Jack’s efforts. His musings bring to mind some of the material in surfing barrister Tim Kevan’s recent book, Why Lawyers Should Surf. Equally, it is just possible that albeit that his motivations are personal, Jack is an everyman for the credit crunch era. How bad is a recession if you don’t own anything? What can it do to you if you’ve freed yourself from the “hopeless chain of invisible materialism”?
But perhaps Jack should also look further into the future. What, after all, will he do, once he has achieved his aims? Will he wander the world, a prophet without honour (but with a blog), or will he do something truly selfless, like The Man Who Planted Trees? Here at Swordplay, we suggest that if there’s one purchase Jack should make, it’s this wonderful book by Jean Giono. Or, if he doesn’t want to buy it, he should borrow it from his local library. Or even covertly read it in his nearest bookstore (it’s only 4,000 words long).
Whatever: The Man Who Planted Trees tells the story of a shepherd’s single-handed effort to reforest a valley in the remote foothills of the Alps after the First World War. He creates, tree by tree, a Garden of Eden which is ultimately inhabited by 10,000 people, none of whom know of his vital part in the development of their community. No materialism was present in the life of the shepherd, one Elzéard Bouffier, and he didn’t have a blog either. But while there are those who believe that Bouffier was based on a real historical figure, Giono always denied this. What’s more, he maintained that while The Man Who Planted Trees was one of the books of which he was most proud, “it [didn't] bring me a cent.”
Image courtesy of Mhonpoo on Flickr.
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