Ollie and Me: He needs so little to be happy

We surround ourselves with material goods and comforts. But we need so little.

When my wife, Ollie and I stopped at the side of the road west of Lambeth to buy a pumpkin yesterday, he ran straight toward a large bell.

He wanted to see what it was, and after helping him ring it a few times I knew he could have stayed all day. I’m sure the proprietor wouldn’t have minded at all.


Back in London he cheerfully raced toward the water garden outside a church near our home. One of his favourite spots. The water ball fascinates him.

At the end of ‘Long Way Down,’ a book about a motorcycle journey from the north of Scotland to the southern tip of Africa, Charley Boorman said, at the end of the trip and after he been warned about so many dangers, “Africa... is a continent full of people who just want normal everyday things like a home and somewhere for their children to go to school. In all the time I’ve been here I’d not felt threatened once.”

(The above sentiment is shared by countless travel writers: Most people around the world have simple needs).

Though I live in a nation where the economy reigns and stuff must be produced and sold ad nauseum to make the wheels go round (“Do we all need a fabulous new kitchen?”), whenever I cast my eyes toward Ollie I realize how little we need to be be truly happy.

Live small and prosper.

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