Volume 7 · The Long Afternoon · Essay 295

Volunteer’s Folly

You may not know the name Volunteer’s Folly, but you know the thing. This page only introduces the two of you formally.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

An old house being emptied for sale teaches more than a philosophy seminar. Every drawer argues that things were never the point; every locked trunk disagrees.

In the end, life asks only whether we were awake while it happened. Print it on a card if you like. Better: print it on a habit.