Hey Lancelot,
I’m here at your grandmas house. Your mom leaves tomorrow. Its good that she’s benn here, got a lot of things done that I didn’t even want to attempt; but I’m glad shes leaving so I can experience some peace and quiet and the house can return to a state of order. She, like most women, uses a new cup or plate for every snack, drink or gods only knows what purpose and then leaves them laying around . What the Chinese would call a mess, seven eight mess. I don’t like living like that.
Several years ago she encouraged me to email you with encouragement. My feeling is that men don’t need encouragement, but I’ll pass on one of the few things I have learned in this life. Simplify the routine things and minimize the complex. An example of this is to own just one plate, bowl, soon, fork, knife, cup and wash them as soon as you have finished using them. What a tremendous upgrade this simple habit has made in my life. When I visit or stay with people they invariably say to me, “leave those, I’ll get them” as they stack stuff up in the already congested sink. To which I reply, “that’s ok, I’ll get it now”. Its too good a habit to risk losing to the consensus paradigm prevalent in america today. To go far, start near. Solved, the mystery of 1% of life. That’s the extent of my knowledge and encouragement.

With my best wishes.