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NaNo 2006 Winner
Exercise #203

Exercise #203: Self Knowledge
Posted 03/16/07

Today’s question comes from Chas Ridley. If you could keep "only" 100 things to have with you for the next year, what would they be?

Background for this question:

“My long-time friend Allen informed me one day in 1982 that he'd decided to go live on a sailboat and the kids and I could join his group if we wanted. The only caveat was that each person could bring no more than 100 things. At the time I had five children at home and a busy business to run and things to write, so this idea went on one of those little scraps of paper that show up later in pockets and books and boxes.

Allen never got to live on his sailboat, and I haven't cut down to 100 things, but I remember his logic often -- so many people in the world never own even 50 things at a time, and here we are inundated with 'stuff' to where we're weighted down by it. Hmmm.”

A revisit to this question appears in The Turnip Mercedes, one of Chas’ books. Her Web site is http://www.hotbooks.com/. If you want Chas’s list from 1997, drop me a line.

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This self-knowledge exercise helps us look at what we have and what we consider valuable.

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