A Simple Life1
(2024)
I
am a simple person.
My life is simple, not complicated.
I
don’t wear fancy clothes. Blue jeans and T-shirts suffice.
I
don’t have a TV. My TV broke four years ago. I haven’t bought a new
one yet.
I live near Lake Merritt and I like to go for
walks around the lake. Every day I see a lot of people listening to
music on their I-Pods while they walk around the lake.
I
like to listen to music also, but I don’t have an I-Pod. When I walk
around the lake I listen to the birds. Ducks and seagulls, their
sounds are music. Simple music.
I used to wear a watch. It
broke 32 years ago. When it broke, for several days I was always
worry about the time. Then I realized how ridiculous it was, so I
stopped worrying. And I stopped wearing a watch.
Where
I work, people are always asking me, “What time is it?”
because they are worried about missing some important meeting. So, a
year ago, I bought a watch. But my watch is not a wristwatch. It’s a
pocket watch.
The pocket is a good place for a watch.
I
have email. But I almost never look at it. It’s not until someone
calls me and asks, “Did you get my email?” that I check.
I
also have a cell phone. I bought it in 1998. I used to drive back and
forth between Indiana and California a lot. I bought a cell phone in
case my car broke down I could call for help.
I still have
my original cell phone. When I travel, I take my cell phone with me.
When I’m not traveling, I keep it in a drawer.
Life
without a television, an I-Pod, a cell phone, or a watch is very
simple.
I am a simple person.
My life is
simple, not complicated.
1This is my translation from the Chinese version (簡單 的 生活, 2007) and the Spanish version (Una Vida Sencilla, 2008). Those who don’t read Chinese or Spanish often run the text through Google Translate which does a good, but not perfect, job of translating them. Some things about my life have changed since 2007. I now have a television, which I seldom watch. I no longer have a cell phone. And I’m better at checking email. However, the essence of my life, and philosophy, has not changed. And my timepiece is still a pocket watch.