This has always been on of my favorite quotes since I first saw it 18 years ago in the signature of a newsgroup posting by Dave Haynie. I have always assumed that the words were his.
Hey Dave,
if you are going to have a quote in your sig, can you please attribute the source?
Thanks.
Dave was my net hero. The online presence of a computer company that cared.
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
{uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy
Too much of everything is just enough
I have always joked that "Too much of everything is just enough" are words to live by.
A friend, and former roommate liked to joke,
the best part of being friends with Hubert is that he has everything.
The worst part of being friends with Hubert was that he has EVERYTHING.
I have always willing to lending anything I have to my friends,
but finding it among all the stuff is often impossible.
-
Before I started my blog I thought I would check the source of my blogs name.
To my surprise, my words to live by appear to come from a song from the Grateful Dead by the name of "I Need A Miracle"
I am not a Grateful Dead fan. This isn't to say that I dislike their music, I can't think of any of their music I am familiar with.
Some thoughts from the writer of "I need a Miracle"
Balancing Acts - January 1999
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/22/one.html
John Perry Barlow
Cofounder, Vice Chairman, And Cognitive Dissident
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Pinedale, Wyoming
I'm the guy who wrote the Grateful Dead song with the line "Too much of everything is just enough." It sounded good when I wrote it 20 years ago, but I don't believe it anymore: Too much of everything is too much. But it's tricky to find a balance between just enough and too much. The more you get, the less you feel that you have. The faster I go, the faster I feel that I need to go. When I was a rancher, there came a point every day when I had to stop working -- simply because my body couldn't keep going. Work in the information economy is different. We can hammer ourselves endlessly -- or so we think. We're living in an era of explosive abundance. The challenge is to manage our freedom and to strike a balance in the face of endless opportunity. I've realized that I must find the discipline to say "No" more often. It sounds easy, but it's not. Just when I've convinced myself that what I have is more than plenty, the phone rings, and someone offers me something that I can't resist. But then I ask an important question: How thin can I spread myself before I'm no longer "there"?
Lyrics of "I need a Miracle"
I need a woman 'bout twice my age
A lady of nobility, gentility and rage
Splendor in the dark, lightning on the draw
We'll go right through the book and break each and every law.
I got a feeling and it won't go away, oh no
Just one thing then I'll be ok
I need a miracle every day.
I need a woman 'bout twice my height
Statuesque, raven-dressed, a goddess of the night.
Her secret incantations, a candle burning blue
We'll consult the spirits maybe they'll know what to do.
And it's real and it won't go away, oh no
I can't get around and I can't run away
I need a miracle every day.
I need a woman 'bout twice my weight
A ton of fun who packs a gun with all her freight
Find her in a sideshow leave her in L.A.
Ride her like a surfer running on a tidal wave.
And it's real, believe what I say, yeah
Just one thing I got to say
I need a miracle every day.
It takes dynamite to get me up
Too much of everything is just enough
One more thing I just got to say
I need a miracle every day,
I need a miracle every day,
I need a miracle every day, (got to be the only way)
I need a miracle
I don't interpret the lyrics taken in their entirety to be talking about Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour or Hoarding, but the parts of the song that I have put in red, hit close to home.
An OCH (obsessive compulsive hoarder) can tell themselves that
too much of everything is just enough.
The unfortunate reality is that there is never enough room,
and never enough things to reach a state of contentment.
I got a feeling and it won't go away, oh no
Just one [more] thing then I'll be ok
I need a miracle every day.
One more thing doesn't help, because there is always another and another after that.
I need a miracle every day.
No more than anyone else,
but everyday is a battle.
