CREDO: ENOUGH
I don’t work too hard. I work hard
enough, having joined the small but growing worldwide Church of Enough, not to be confused with the service club called Just Enough, whose border blurs with the Club of Just Barely Enough, which is too similar, frankly, to the Club of Not Really Enough, aligned of course with the also growing club of Not Nearly Enough who might as well admit they’re paying members of the Piss Poor In Nearly Every Measurable Way Society. No, we’re the Church of Enough–not to be confused either, please, with those in the mildly amiable but really too puffed up Club of More Than Enough, who won’t admit this publicly but they share office space with the growing Crystal Cathedral of Too Much and a splinter group, the Cult of Much Too Much, who are Calvinistic in believing anyone without the proud banner MUCH TOO MUCH (a hand-tatted silky thing they work extra hours to buy), anyone who sleeps eight hours in a row, anyone who cares to whisper, “balance,” anyone who stares at a cobalt bottle in the afternoon light, anyone who smiles just must by definition belong to what they see as the biggest club of all, Just Not Enough.
Moderation in most things
is our creed. If we met
we’d chant it but we don’t
have meetings. To qualify
for membership you must
come to us having attended
enough meetings already.
A humble enough start
has bloomed like rust
in the machine
of the rest of our lives.
When progress grinds
to an ugly steaming stop
in our backyards
we’ll be there to sing songs
around the dying fire.
We will have progressed far
enough.
______________________________
I wrote this poem a very long time ago, maybe as many as 15 years ago, when I first read Juliet Schor’s The Overworked American. It became a signature piece for me at poetry readings for a while, although it still scares me to read it in public sometimes, since I assume someone is thinking and might say, “You could work a little harder, couldn’t you?”
But it’s an important end-piece for this particular series, and it’s important enough to me that my husband and I are going to be selling broadsides of it, with a gorgeous image he took of one of my cobalt blue bottles. (Contact me if you want one.)
As a friend of mine said, “It’s all about who’s in the lifeboat with us,” and as I added, “who’s down the hall in the nursing home.”
Are you with me? Want to come to my house when progress grinds to an ugly steaming stop? When that fire goes out, we’ll build a fire in our fire pit (which my husband and I made from the recycled drum of our front-loader washing machine) and drink some beers or possibly home-brewed hooch, which would both save us some cash and let me hark back to more of my Bullock heritage.
I’m saying it loud, saying it proud: Enough. Say it with me: Enough.
marniere 
i want one, Marnie, and I’ll huddle around your fire pit any damn day:)
(and, i’m invoking UFFDA and will be there when the business meeting starts tomorrow but not before, so save me a seat and some of Jen’s candy and know that i think our discussions are awesome, but i need sleep and sanity and not such an early morning:))
Good for you! I think it’s admirable that you’re coming at all. This is win-win–we get to see you AND we get to say that your absence at the morning meeting is a casualty of budget cuts.
And if nath gets the “current final version” printed today, you’ll get the broadside tomorrow. (If not tomorrow, SOON.)
I want one!
We have to figure out how to ship them, but I’ll let you know when I figure it out. Nath’s image is really, really beautiful on it.
Nice. Love your images here. This reminds me of the Paul Simon song “American Tune” and the lines……
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s gonna be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest,
That’s all, I’m trying to get some rest
Want. Please.
It’s yours.
Amen. I want to join your church.
Welcome to the Church of Enough!
I want one! I also want charter membership in the Church of Enough.
You got it! And you’re in.
Want one and yep, Enough!
Mrs. D.,
The Church of Enough should be a registered religion complete with its own copywrite and patented trademark!!! Guess that is where I am at this stage in life…I don’t care about being wealthy, competing with or outdoing “The Joneses” or anyone else…I just want enough to cover what I need…I don’t care if so and so has a brand new Mercedes SL convertible or lives in a $500,000 mini-mansion inside of an exclusive country club development…
My 2004 Mazda and “rabbit hutch” house, as my grandmother used to call it years ago, which I inherited from my mother and grandparents, are paid for and MINE…No bank can come take them away…Most people are so deep in debt trying to outdo each other, they will never get see daylight or break even debtwise…
I would love to come sit by the firepit and drink a few homemade brews with you guys too one day in the future…Sounds like an idyllic existence…I would have to smuggle in a battery operated tv…LOL…I can’t survive without my nightly Conan O’Brien fix…LOL..
The best part of being a part of the Church of Enough is our own beholden, blessed benediction–that massive sigh of relief at the end of a long hard working day. Say it with me: Ahhhh….. 🙂 Have an excellent weekend, Marnie!
Also, some homemade brew by the washing machine fire pit sounds like quite the treat! I’ll take that any day.
You should take a road trip north!
I’m sooo thinking about it! 😀