When Is Enough Enough?

Being HAPPY with what you have. Larkin Poe on #FreedomMusicFriday

We won’t have an installment of The Distributed Nation today. I simply have to get some Christmas stuff done! However, I know how much some of you have been missing #FreedomMusicFriday, and we do have time for a quick one now.

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I woke up this morning feeling like I needed some carbs and protein right away. It was still dark, and everyone else was still asleep, so I quietly sneaked to the kitchen to cook some grits and corned beef.

For edification while cooking (and doing some cleaning in between grit-stirs), I listened (via earbuds) to Rebooting Humanity with Larken Rose. When I was done, and my food was ready, my mind turned to this post, and to the question of what song I would choose for #FreedomMusicFriday. Then I noticed that at the top of YouTube’s recommendations was “Little Bit” by Larkin Poe.

Maybe YT recommended it because of the similarity between Larken Rose and Larkin Poe. Or maybe it was because the algorithm knows that I actually happen to like Larkin Poe. Either way, I saw the video and decided, before listening, that if at all possible, I would choose it for today’s post.

Now, first of all, if you don’t know Larkin Poe (and if you like their genre even a little bit) then you should get to know them.

A couple of great songs of theirs include “Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues”…

and “Blood Harmony.”

I had never heard “Little Bit,” and now having done so, it is not my favorite of their songs. But the lyrics fit the bill, and it is nice enough, so let’s do it.

The freedom message, overall, is freedom from things that don’t really matter.

Why would I want to change my life?
Why is it new is always better?

Some change and novelty are good, of course. But we are, as a species, restless. We have a high negativity bias. We are seekers by nature.

Thus, we have a tension. On the one had, it is good to try to improve one’s circumstances. On the other, too much of that blinds us to how good we have it in the here and now. We need to balance these, and free ourselves from obsessing about the future, and about what we don’t have.

And that messages extends to one’s views of oneself:

I’m not ashamed of what I’m not.
I’m a long ways from the top.

Here we have the same tension. We have to push ourselves to be better. And a little insecurity can be good. If you have 150 pounds to lose, and being ashamed of how you’ve let yourself go is what helps drive you to lose the weight, then that’s a good thing. (I speak from experience not from myself, but from people close to me.)

Yet we cannot dive too far into insecurity about what we’re not. Maybe the balance is found in trying to be the best YOU that you can be, but in never feeling like you are inadequate because you’re not someone else. Maybe we should at least free ourselves from that expectation.

The message continues, and can be applied to a lot of things:

And that’s okay ‘cause I want just a little bit.
Little dream, little plan.

Expectations are good. But losing oneself in unrealistic expectations, and never being happy with what one has, isn’t so good.

The older one gets, the more one tends to be entertained by the little things in life. They say that with age comes wisdom, and here in my mid 50s, I am inclined to agree. There is a lot to be said for deriving joy from the little dreams and little plans.

Thinking big is good too. So long as you’re truly happy.

I’m gonna walk a little lighter.
I won’t let nothing weigh me down.
I know that I could climb higher and higher.
But I’m rich right here right now

I have spoken about the importance of perspective before. Being content with what you have, whatever it is, truly is a blessing.

There is also a message that I think can be helpful especially to young women, so many of whom are afflicted by the dysmorphia and insane expectations of Instagram and TikTok:

If I looked in the mirror would I recognize.
This winner you’d have me stitch together.

Again, one does not want to go too far down the road of “you’re perfect just the way you are,” to the extent that one allows oneself to gain 150 unneeded pounds. But you also don’t want to be judging yourself against AI models, camera filters, and a self-selected group of humanity’s most beautiful .01 percent, either.

The modern culture that lionizes fame, celebrity, and wealth isn’t helping:

It’s a small world,
I don’t wanna think big.
Keep the things I need on a very short list.
What do you keep looking for?
More ain’t always more.

What do you keep looking for?/More ain’t always more. It’s good to want to be successful and financially secure. And if you want to have some nice things, great.

But is that pursuit actually making you happy? If not, then maybe it is time to set yourself free of that expectation.

Let us finally relate this back to the distributed nation for a moment.

Yes, the distributed nation is thinking big. Indeed, it will ultimately involve the whole world. But…

It is going to take a long time to get there. And before we can think about the big world, we have to think about the small world that is right in front of us. The distributed nation is about each of us and our own “small world.” If each of us focuses on building the small, the big will happen automatically.

So build your own small world and be happy, and we will too. And the combination will be huge!