life without keys...

I received the loveliest engraved silver keyring for Christmas. It's now attached to my purse, after I realized I didn't have any keys to put on it.

Come to think of it, I haven't owned a set of keys for quite some time. The big house I live in has an electronic locking system that doesn't require keys. Since I work in the same building, there's no keys needed there either. Before, I lived with a gangway instead of a front door, and could never manage to find the keys to cabin 41 anyway (not to mention I had nothing worth locking up). My car keys I gave up four years ago when I left behind my self-sufficient life, and although I now share a "community" vehicle, I rarely use it and don't hold those keys. I barely remember having post office box keys in a past life. And even luggage keys I don't bother with any longer, since it's pointless to lock your bags when every security point between here and the new world can open them anyway.

The plus side to my keyless life is that I have no keys to lose. (Not that I ever lost them before...) They never fall to the bottom of my purse, I rarely worry about locking myself out, and I spend less time fumbling with doors in the dark.

Keys symbolize many things – independence, ownership, security, privacy... In a way I suppose my current life holds less of all of those things. But I'm also well aware that keys represent the trappings of responsibility – commutes, mortgages, car payments – normal life for most.

In my next life I'm sure I'll have keys. And I'm looking forward to them. But meanwhile, there's something rather refreshing about a life without keys.

Maybe fewer keys is the key to simple living. Maybe we'd be happier if we all walked more instead of driving, left our doors unlocked more, and our luggage too. Maybe we should use a safe only for protection from fire, not from theft. But the reality is that very few people live in a world simple enough to have the luxury of not worrying about all of those things.

The empty keychain on my purse reminds me how blessed I am...

:: "I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex." – Oscar Wilde