more or less

Newton had an elegant proposition: every action is met by an equal and opposite reaction. Generation X has seen that principle through the prism of unprecedented economic expansion, followed by a fair share of contraction. That sense of stricture is understandably uncomfortable – not least for those who started with little. But in characteristic (commendable? condemnable?) style, we want to do more with this less. Arguably, very necessary. Still a riddle that leaks through the seams of our withering security blankets.

In politics, the rhetoric sounds hyperpractical and uberefficient. Technology pats itself on the back for inhabiting just that role on its best days; sustainability yearns to convince every last human that this process is just, and true. At work, it means one does the work of three, without compensation, and in leisure, it nudges us to turn off the tv and pick up a book.

Poor people have been riding such transformations for eons. Although class structure is relative and imperfect, doing more with less seems the very definition of a family of four living on an income of $45,000. The New York Times found bankers and brokers who might relate, because they’re “not yet rich”; they “work hard and get paid a lot for working hard”, and warn that anyone suggesting their bonuses be taxed is a socialist. (My husband suggests that socialism might also be defined as a government giving money to a business so that it can give bonuses to its employees.) If $625,000 is less, can’t we still call it more?


We could just walk around our own cities and towns to gain insight into the alchemy we seek. Traveling affords us that learning in a centrifugal spin. My friend Kim inspired me to pay attention with a beginner’s mind through her vision of Guatemala. (You'll have to guess on i.d.-ing the pictures, I'm too ludditic to arrange them correctly...) Cartagena, too, is full of examples of comical practicality, endearments of sharing, and beauty that persists through tenacity or default.


Necessity and creativity have long been siblings; they bicker in boom times and scheme in the rough. I hope they remind us to be bold with our play, be it new ways of seeing or choices we’re unaccustomed to making. We might trick ourselves into getting what we truly want with some artful magic.