Striking the right balance

They have created a life that is right for them. A life that is devoid of extraneous luxuries, which we urban dwellers have come to think of as necessities. They live in a 250squaremetre home on 80 acres of land, 90 per cent of which is covered by forests.

After about 50 years of marriage and about 80 years of living, they are truly happy.

They have found the balance in life that most of us are searching for. They have discovered it on their own through trials and a few pitfalls along the way.

But, he had a plan. He no longer needed to have a large home on a postagestamp lot. He knew that by buying this piece of land he was plan¬ning for the future and designing a life that he wanted to create for his fami¬ly. My father, forever the teacher, was teaching us the principles of the Golden Mean.

The ancient Greeks believed that beauty is made up of three balanced components: symmetry, proportion and harmony. They also believed that when any one of these components is not aligned with the others, a sense of imbalance is created. And therefore, the Golden Mean is not achieved.

And so, my father went about building a modest 250squaremetre home that incorporated everything that he felt was necessary to live the dream he was searching.

Bedrooms for each of us were neither too big nor too small - but were human scale. Closets were large enough for our clothes but not large enough to always be in need of filling up. Bathrooms were small and above all else, utilitarian.

In these times when excess is non¬sense, it would be wise to remember the wisdom of the Greek philosophers handed down to us by our fathers: too much of anything is a shipwreck.