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| Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller |
Provocative words
indeed. Tom is writing about how WE (humans) are ‘just a small part of the
greater community of life.’ Somehow we have forgotten this, and we do not
know how to quit pretending we are not.
Somehow we must have
the courage to shout ‘Enough Already!’
The
expression Enough Already has its roots in the Yiddish-speaking communities
of New York. It is an expression that can usefully be applied to how we live
upon the Earth, and how we live with the greater community of life.
Enough and
Already
Enough is a compound word deriving from the Old English word ge
meaning with or together. It is similar in meaning to the Latin
word com.
The second
part of the word (nough) originates in Proto-Indo-European words such as
nok and nek which connote notions of to reach and to
attain.
Putting this together we might define enough as having attained together.
Enough suggests arriving at a point of sufficiency where we have
attained what it is we sought after.
When we look closely at the word already,
we can again discern two parts to it. We know the first part – all. It
means everything, completion, fullness, whole, entirety.
The second part, also we know – ready.
It denotes done, prepared. Nothing more needs to be executed to make it ready.
Thus, already can be defined as fully
done or wholly prepared.
Enough Already!
So, what of the full expression – Enough
Already!?
It is impossible to obtain any other
meaning from this expression than one that says, ‘to reach the point at
which we are completed prepared and there is nothing more that needs to be
attained.’
What if we were to fully engage with this notion of Enough Already!?
We might then understand, as Lao Tzu did two
and a half thousand years ago, that, ‘He who knows that enough is enough
will always have enough.’
Someone who had a similar understanding to
that of Lao Tzu was the American author Joseph Heller – author of the classic
1961 novel Catch 22.
Heller and Vonnegut
When Joseph Heller died, his good friend
and fellow author, Kurt Vonnegut (author of Slaughterhouse-Five,) wrote in
his obituary of a party that the two of them attended. The party host was a millionaire.
As the two of them talked, Vonnegut opined to his friend that the millionaire made
more money in one day than Heller’s book (Catch 22) had since it had
been published.
Joseph Heller looked at his friend and
said, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have.’
Vonnegut naturally asked, ‘What is
that?’
To which Heller replied, ‘Enough!’
It is a discerning tale.
Enough Needs, More Wants
This concept of attaining enough applies
not just personally, but also socially and culturally. Individually we may be
able to recognise when we have enough and our needs are fully satisfied.
However, we are constantly bombarded by others who want to persuade and coerce
us into wanting more and more. That surely, is the credo of the PR/advertising
fraternity.
So, our whole social and cultural value
system is designed to never be enough already.
And, never being enough means we
are constantly, and continually, exploiting and laying waste the Earth. The
exploitation of the Earth goes hand-in-hand with our mistreatment of one
another and the systematic corruption that enables this to happen.
We may, as Tom Murphy suggests, already be
behind.
We should quit.
We could imitate Joseph Heller and
recognise that we have enough.
Joseph Heller grew up in the
Yiddish-speaking community of Coney Island in New York. Perhaps that is where
he picked up the notion of sufficiency.
We too, like the Yiddish-speaking residents of Coney Island, must shout out, Enough Already!
1. Tom Murphy, Are We Lucky? https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-10-04/are-we-lucky/
accessed 5 October 2023.
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