DOMESTIC ARITHMETIC
Better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.—Ecclesiastes 4:6
Artistic creativity is not a function of addition only; there is an art of subtraction, an art of clearing away the unnecessary that the necessary may breathe and flourish. You decrease to increase. Domestic arithmetic is like that.
Simplicity is not a philosophy of austerity, sterility, or detachment; there is wide scope for color, texture, artistry—more so because the canvas is clean.
Simplicity is a few things of the best.
It is a day not consumed by inessential bustling, but carefully filled with activities important and meaningful, punctuated by quiet spaces.
It is a bookshelf not cluttered with paperbacks read once, but lined with a few choice volumes read again and again.
It is a silence not choked by the cacophony of television, radio and strife, but seasoned with laughter, talk and Vivaldi.
It is a heart not torn by conflicting affections, but made whole by integrity of purpose.
Simplicity is not asceticism; it is a removal of what does not matter, that we may gain freedom to enjoy what does.
• A single white tulip is arresting in its beauty and simplicity. •
September 3, 2013