I just relocated from the southeast side of Cleveland to the Hilton Head area of South Carolina after decades of Ohio consumption. Ugh. As hard as I tried, as much as I kept purging, I still had far too much to pack, unpack, force-fit and make sense of.

Of course, the whole experience makes me think of writing. Because both packing and writing can be overwhelming. Both tempt us to keep adding, when subtracting would serve us better. And both tasks tend to have annoying deadlines. The list goes on.

My point: Nothing teaches us the supremeness of simple–the value of less–like packing. What we have to do when we pack (and write) is weed out the weeds. Toss the superflous. Then, go back at it again and again.

Ninety-six times out of a hundred, the more you get rid of, the more you (and the people you want to impress) will appreciate what’s left: the relevant, the necessary, the inimitable, the sublime.