10: Simplify Your Life

The Power of the Negative, or Letting Go to Propel Forward

“Positive thinking” was all the rage when I was a child in the 1970s. Deemed the all-powerful solution to everything, the positive has had an illustrious career since: ‘positive reinforcement,’ ‘positivity,’ ‘positivism,’ …

As I learned during periods of calamity, such as the COVID pandemic or the genocide in Palestine, there is also such a thing as “toxic positivity”.

The negative has its place in this world. Nothing can exist without its opposite. We’ll never feel the joy of the positive if we don’t stop every now and then to contemplate and feel the negative.

Attention to empty space is foundational for East Asian art and architecture: The Summer Palace, Beijing, China (Photo by Ramsey Hanhan, October 2012)

The author at the Summer Palace, Beijing, China (Photo by ‘Charlene’, October 2000)

The elegance of Song Dynasty paintings comes from the balance between ink and empty space. The artist sees that space the way they see any object.

‘Lamp Kiss’ (Photo by Ramsey Hanhan, 2017)

The discerning musician likewise attends to the blank spaces between the notes.

The Palace Museum, Beijing, China (Photo by Ramsey Hanhan, December 2005)

Beyond mere aesthetics, the negative is as useful as the positive.