Enough Already!

I found a copy of a Kurt Vonnegut speech on my kitchen table this morning. I skimmed through it while munching on my oh-so-healthy breakfast of 2% cottage cheese and apple slices.

In this speech, he told about a party that he and Joseph Heller (Catch 22) attended. The party was held at the home of an unnamed "multi-billionaire". Vonnegut asked Heller how he felt about the idea that the multi-billionaire had probably made more money on a single day than Heller had made from all the sales of Catch 22 over forty years.

Heller replied that he had "something he can never have".

Vonnegut asked what that could be.

"The knowledge that I've got enough," was the reply.

I've watched so many people over the years. Buying this car or that house in that neighborhood. Buying those designer clothes or being seen eating at that restaurant. Working and working and working to have things but with no time to enjoy them. Worrying ulcers into their stomach linings whenever bill paying time comes around.

I've watched people skip from job to job, from career to career. From lover to lover or marriage to marriage. From city to city. Hot in pursuit of what they think they need or want.

And those people never seem really happy to me. They seem too busy to be happy.

I'm happy that I have the knowledge that I have more than I need.

I've got enough.

Loki sez: But what about cat food? Do we have enough cat food?