In the final weeks of summer, we look back on the recent Coast Mountains Keep It Simple issue and its photographic celebration of dialing it back and focusing on the elemental beauty of the backcountry.
“How we spend our days,” author Annie Dillard once famously said, “is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
So yeah, every day is a golden opportunity to get out and do something awesome that will culminate into the lives we’ve been looking for. But there seems to be a tendency—especially for those of us living through the smokescreen of social media—to focus on the grand gestures and big moments. The fruits of much labour and effort. The spectacle.
We know we’re supposed to live “in the moment” but there’s a pressure to “live large” in that moment as well.
Which is fine. Every day is a gift, so go ahead and make hay when the sun shines. But there is also value in aiming the other direction, in trimming some days down to good, simple pleasures.
This isn’t to say an absolute simple life is the greatest path for everyone—lofty goals create great stories, so why not go big sometimes (and a heated toilet seat/bidet is more than just a luxury, it’s an enlightenment). So rather than a simple life, how about a simpler one?
Because in an economy of attention, with six-word headlines designed to trigger our fears and anxieties without context or nuance; with devices that can beam almost the entire scope of civilization, past and present, into our eyeballs every time we stop moving; with algorithms feeding us never-ending marketing and visual reminders of all the grand things everyone else is up to and the super places they’re visiting that we are not, maybe it’s time to embrace the old idea that less is actually more.
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So, take your foot off the gas for a moment this summer. Take a breather. Take five. Then take five more. Rather than looking at what you can add to the days of your life, look at what to take away. –Feet Banks
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