A Note on Simplicity
One of the most poignant observations that the precocious Laura Timmins makes in Lark Rise to Candleford comes near the end of the third book, Candleford Green. Uniquely poised in history as a young girl watching an old order give way to the new, she comments on the differences between the housewives of her mother’s generation and those of that immediately following. Endowed with so many of the choices and conveniences provided by the Industrial Revolution, these younger women had come to expect a standard of living much higher than that within which Laura had grown up. They had finer, newer homes, wood floors and store-bought furniture and curios.
But, as Laura so candidly wonders, where they really happier than the women in their tiny cottages with polished stone hearths and a bit of a garden out back?
Everything was beautifully kept, furniture and floors were highly polished, windows gleamed, curtains and counterpanes were immaculate, and the little kitchen at the back of the house was a model of neatness. Laura found out afterwards that Mrs. Green worked herself nearly to death. With only one child and a house only a little larger than theirs, she worked twice the number of hours and spent ten times the energy of the cottage women. They, standing at their doors with their arms folded, enjoying a gossip with a neighbor, would often complain that a woman’s work was never done; but the Mrs. Greens were working away while they gossiped and, afterwards, when they were indoors having a ‘set down with a cup o’ tay’, the Mrs. Greens, wearing gloves, were polishing the silver. For of course forks and spoons and any other objects possessed by a Green housewife were known collectively as ‘the silver’, even if there was not one single hallmark to be seen upon any of them.
Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford, p. 552,53
It’s worth considering. The more choices, it seems, the more room there is for comparison with others and expectations of ourselves.
And it certainly makes me want to pause over that one more purchase of a thing to be cared for. I think I’d much rather spend the money on some lovely tea and invest the time in a long chat with a friend. 🙂
As our family prepares to move we’ve stepped back and looked at what we can really live without. Do I really want to be the caretaker of so many things…things that are often stored in boxes in the basement? I’ve decided that if I don’t absolutely love it, I don’t need it. As I pack these boxes of unnecessaries I feel free. I am moving forward with the motto “Simplicity, Beauty and Order”.
I do so love your blog, Lanier! This post was a delight and refreshment as yours always are. My heart thrills at your love of books that are so dear to my heart.
How true this is! About twice the year I am seized by the urge to simplify. It is difficult, for me, to balance my love of beautiful things and my desire to live more simply. I’m going to keep striving for that balance, though!
I have a simple home, and I love it. Less to care for and more time for tea and friendship! I am going to have to read those books.
I love your conclusion – and have to agree! Tea and conversation over suff (do books count as stuff?!?) any day. Simplicity makes room for lots of wonderful things in our hearts and lives.
Oh the war with “stuff”!! I struggle with all the items in our home that others have outgrown , left behind or we inherited. William Morris says it very well…”Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Some of my most “beautiful” items were made by small hands of now grown children or ones that belonged to my most loved family members now with the Lord. My mother in law’s flour bowl that never left the pantry and was always covered with her sifter is now my favorite salad bowl. I believe it to be useful and beautiful where she only saw it as useful. My Grandmother had a saying concerning the freshness of food items..”When in doubt…throw it out..” That works pretty well with “stuff” also. Unfortunately I do not have much doubt about a lot of things that are in our home…but to me it makes home HOME.
I’d like to read Lark Rise to Candleford. Have you ever read Bess Streeter Aldrich? Two of her books, Lantern in Her Hand and A White Bird Flying, follow several generations of a family. These have a similar theme to what you described–old giving way to new, then new looking back to the old for strength in times of trouble. While the stories are fiction, Aldrich said they were based on information she gleaned from family diaries. My most favorite of hers is The Rim of the Prairie.
I love Bess Streeter Aldrich, Jodi!! 🙂 I did not know that wonderful bit about the family diaries, but it’s no surprise that her stories were based in fact–they are all so wonderfully alive, peopled with characters that you feel like you know. The Rim of the Prairie is the next on my list, so I’m glad to hear that it’s your favorite! 🙂
A very good point indeed. I’ve been both working mother, SAHM mother, work at home mother, and homeschool mother; and a combination of all those sorts of “titles” at one point or another.
And in all those different seasons of my life, I’ve found that the MORE WE KEEP IT SIMPLE, THE EASIER IT IS TO MANAGE AND ENJOY.
The Paradox of Choice is an excellent essay if you’ve never read it. (methinks you probably have)