Ithaca Blog

Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Most Self-Sufficient Guy in the World

Have you heard of this new non-fiction book listing the bare 100 items one needs in order to live?

100 seems like a lot to me. I do generally think of myself as a guy who doesn't need much. Not so much out of virtue, but because I don't know how to do much. The most useful thing I learned in school was spelling. I realize other people learned a lot from computer science, engineering, physics, etc., but not me.

Some friends of mine were discussing this book and decided to get it down to the real minimum, a challenge I relished. My answer - a source of water, and seeds - was definitive, I thought.

I never gave this answer, though, as the contest was stopped almost immediately by my great friend John, who knows how to do a lot, but requires little.

His answer was, "a piece of metal and something to sharpen it with."

If you have a worthier answer, please let me know. We'll print it here, and give John something to consider about paring down.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog

No comments: