August 10
Make yourself independent of what is not in your hands. Whoever needs little is rich; whoever desires everything stays poor, even if the world were his.
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (freely rendered)
Listening mode
Make yourself independent of what is not in your hands. Whoever needs little is rich; whoever desires everything stays poor, even if the world were his.
There is a kind of modesty that is really caution. You tell yourself that a yes doesn't matter to you before it could even arrive. You apply half-heartedly, or invite someone so casually that it seems all the same to you whether they turn up. That way the disappointment stays small, because you wanted little to begin with.
From outside, this looks like independence. But the wish hasn't gone away. You just no longer say it out loud. And that is exactly why it goes on deciding how you behave: holding back, with a back door you keep open for yourself.
Another way of needing little is harder. You can want something clearly and still know that without it you will be no poorer. Then you can also let it show that it means something to you. A no hits you, and perhaps you really feel it. But it takes nothing from you that you would have lived on.
From inside, the two attitudes are hard to tell apart. Sometimes you only notice the difference after a rejection: do you regret, then, that you asked?
