The Pleasure of Beauty and Order
It has now been 3-1/2 years since I moved back to America. Prior to that I had lived in the Netherlands for 15 years.
I guess the first year or two I spent getting my house here in Texas fixed up and organized the way I wanted it. The house was only about 3 years old when I bought it, so I didn't have to repair a lot of things; and it was originally built with double pane windows and good insulation. But I chose to take the house to a higher level: I installed extra insulation on the water heater, coated the roof white to reflect the sun's rays, and had roll down shutters installed on the outside of the windows.
I added a third ¼ inch layer to inside of the windows so that they were now triple pane. My house in Europe had double pane windows and was relatively new and modern; but once in Scandinavia, once in the prior East Germany, and once in Scotland I had realized how nice it was in hotels where they had double pane windows, and then after a 3 or 4 inch air separation another single transparent layer. That third pane kept the noise and the elements outside, where they belong.
Inside the house I did a lot both to surround myself with beauty, and also things to make my life easier. I spent some time viewing my fluorescent mineral collection yesterday. It is like renewing a friendship when you haven't seen someone recently. Sometimes I will spend a couple of hours researching and getting to be a bit of an expert on something absolutely trivial, and something which no one else could give a hoot about. That's OK. It makes me happy to know that I am continuing to expand my mind.
I just realized today that it is such a nice pleasure to have the house well organized. Everything really does have its place, and nearly all the time things are put back in place after use. It is such a pleasure to know right where to find whatever you are looking for. Whether it is a tool in the garage, or something to do with one of my cameras, a gun, some fluorescent mineral, painting, old piece of pottery, or a particular piece of clothing or pair of shoes.
Here in the neighborhood I know right where to go to find a particular shop or place to eat.
I'm at that point in life where I have the time and energy to enjoy new ideas, new things, and change; but mostly I enjoy the simple pleasures of having everything the same. The old comfortable stuff well organized and easy to find. Sometimes when I get up in the middle of the night I even pretend that I have gone almost totally blind. I don't turn on any lights, and it is such a pleasure to generally be able to go right to what I want, even in the total darkness.
My body is gradually giving out, but Life Is Good. I am very fortunate to find myself in this level of luxury as I approach the end of the road.
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