There was a time not that long ago, BTF (before the fire), when I had about everything material I could possibly want. I had several TVs, a desktop computer, a car, a wrist watch, dozens of socks, a colander, and even more. What more could a man possibly want? The fact is that every Christmas, friends and family would ask me what I wanted for the holidays, and I invariably said I needed nothing—although I do like sour pickles and chocolate (not together).
Then the fire struck, and as the lyricist Ira Gershwin wrote in the song “I Got Plenty O’Nuttin” for his brother George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” I suddenly had plenty o’nuttin. Porgy boasted that he had no lock on his door, but I was able to do one better—I had no door. I had pretty much the clothes on my back. Henry David Thoreau, who wrote “Walden,” would have been very proud of me, since he believed material things weigh us down, and I certainly wasn’t weighed down.
This past Christmas was a far different experience from other holiday seasons. When people asked me what I could use, my answer was simple: “anything.” Every gift was a sheer delight. It didn’t matter whether it was a cutting board, sunglasses or an umbrella. By the time the holidays were over, I no longer could sing, “I got plenty o’nuttin and nothing’s plenty for me,” and Thoreau would no longer be proud of me, because I was accumulating things faster than a squirrel gathers nuts before the winter.
Now that my post-fire anxiety has subsided a bit, it is a good time for me to examine what things I really need and what does, in fact, weigh me down. I had always wanted to thin out my files, and the fire certainly did that most efficiently. I also wanted to get rid of a lot of clothes that no longer fit (haven’t for about 20 years), and the fire took care of that, also. But I realize that I no longer need more than one suit, two ties, and a couple of dress shirts. There is something liberating about reducing inventory. Thoreau was right about possessions owning us rather than our owning them.
And Porgy was also right. I, too, can say that the things that I prize like the stars in the skies are all free, and I got my gal, I got my love, and I got my song.
I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin
I got plenty of nothing
And nothing’s plenty for me
I got no car—got no mule
I got no misery
Folks with plenty of plenty
They’ve got a lock on the door
Afraid somebody’s gonna rob ’em
While there out (a) making more—what for
I got no lock on the door—that’s no way to be
They can steal the rug from the floor—that’s OK with me
‘Cause the things that I prize—like the stars in the skies—are all free
I got plenty of nothing
And nothing’s plenty for me
I got my gal—got my song
(I) Got heaven the whole day long
Got my gal—got my love—got my song