I was working recently with a Nigerian author on his novel-in-progress. It afforded me a fascinating look into a culture with which I am unfamiliar, a coming-of-age story that was really quite beautiful.

I encouraged him to use as many colloquial expressions in dialogue as he deemed appropriate, but to cut back on their repetition—three times in one paragraph will slow the reader, I explained.

But what I thought about afterwards was exactly what those phrases were that he repeated so often. Two of them stand out: “soon enough” and “good enough.” The third-person narration used them, the characters used them. They were peppered throughout nearly every page.

It occurred to me that this author and these characters had a worldview that we in capitalist, more “developed” countries have lost sight of: the notion of something being enough.

Like many other people, I’ve been dismayed by the rise of oligarchs in the United States, people who are wealthy beyond anyone’s dreams and yet who still crave more. Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos could come close to eliminating world hunger without it impacting their lifestyle at all—Bezos famously once referred to his fortune as his “winnings”—and yet all they want is to have more. More money. More luxury. More things.

I contrast that with this novel. Characters say that someone will come soon enough. They note that a stew is good enough. It’s never said in resignation, but always in pleasure.

For us in the west, “enough” often means “not quite what I want, but it will do.” But what if enough were actually—enough?

I am fortunate—blessed—in my life. I have a place to live. I have plentiful food to eat. I have work that I love, friends whom I cherish, even a stack of books yet to be read. I wake up every morning and get to spend most of the day doing what I love to do. For many people, that would represent riches beyond belief. Others might look at the financial precariousness of my existence and declare me a failure.

Me? I have enough. I don’t need more than what I have. And, like my author’s characters, I take great pleasure in having enough.

Kurt Vonnegut shares a story: I’ll give it to you in his words:

True story, word of honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer, now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”

What would the world be like if we all could take stock of our lives and realize that we have enough? How much easier would it be, then, to use our energy and our money and our time to reach out to those who truly don’t have enough?

I’d like to live in that world. Wouldn’t you?

Enough is Enough

The Story of My Stories