enough (essay)

Our mutual friend Webster 1913 refers to enough as 'to a degree or quantity that satisfies; to satisfaction; sufficiency'.

That is the destination to which we all wish to arrive. We work, plot, and conspire ways to get there. We all want to get enough, to be enough, to have enough. But, we must ask, enough of what? And how will we ever know when we arrive at the point of enough?

I would like to take a few moments to delineate some of the things we seek on our journey to enough.One thing we probably can agree on is we want enough time. Time to enjoy the fruit of our labor, time to enjoy the people in our lives, time to simply revel in our act of existence. We want time to see our children grow, mature, become what they were intended to become. Then we want time to experience their children, see the circle become complete, give them the gift of ourselves we've spent a lifetime becoming.

We want enough money, enough comfort, enough security. In my own life I seek to have enough money not just for today but for tomorrow and a series of following tomorrows. That pursuit has been less successful than I could have wished. I have enough comfort, as I am very low maintenance. My home is not expansive by any means, but it is comfortable. I sleep peacefully, content to be where I am. As for security, I'm as secure as my ignorance will allow me to be. How secure is anyone in a world where criminals are free to wreak havoc, terrorists can blow airplanes from the sky, or drive them into large skyscrapers? My security lies in the fact I'm too insignificant a target for any but the most misguided criminal.

I am part of the population which is overweight. Obviously, I have had enough food, yet tomorrow I will eat again. This is one of the categories which must continually be replenished. I require a steady stream of money, food, water, and other commodities to maintain myself. This type of enough will only cease when I am past the need for these things. When I'm dead, I will certainly have had enough food, water, and oxygen.

The advertising industry exists to satisfy my need for enough. Enough cars, enough travel and vacations, even enough sex. They tell me that I want or need what they're selling and even better yet that I deserve it. They know that if they can make me feel deprived they're halfway toward selling me their wares.

In reflecting on my every day life, I'm sure I've arrived at the point of having enough laws to obey, enough regulations on what I can buy, what I can do, what I can see and hear. I've had enough of politicians telling me what they think I want to hear. I've had enough of politicians telling me what I don't want to hear. I've had enough and then some of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Nicole Richie. I've had enough of George W. Bush and his inability to enunciate a simple sentence. I've had enough of both major US political parties and their blind struggle for power for the sake of power.

I've had enough of tattoos, body piercings, strangely colored hair. Ok, a little was novel, interesting, even in some strange fashion cool. Now, everyone looks like they got falling-down drunk in Bass Pro Shop's fishing lure section. Enough I say, enough.

I've had enough of poor customer service, enough of functionally illiterate cashiers who can't be bothered to interrupt their oh-so-interesting conversation to wait on a customer. I've had enough of store managers who put up with that kind of customer alienating behavior by their employees.

What I haven't had enough of is conversations with my wife, with my kids. I haven't had enough time to figure out this thing called life. I haven't walked barefoot enough, enjoyed home grown tomatoes enough, honored my Creator enough. There are still people I want to meet, stories I want to hear and tell, things I want to do, places I want to go. I want there to always be more of these things I wish to experience. Enough is a place you go to when there's nothing left. Heaven save me from ever getting to the place where I've had enough.