Luke 9:3: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.”
It has taken me almost all of my life to grasp the profound simplicity of this directive from Jesus to his disciples. But it will take the rest of my life to learn how to embody and ‘act out’ the spiritual principle of detachment—the idea that “less is more.” In our fast-paced, material-driven society, we often find ourselves bound by possessions and obligations, which obscure the deeper, more meaningful aspects of existence. Only when we strip away these distractions can we truly open ourselves to the divine, allowing it to touch us in ways we never thought possible.
This call to embrace simplicity and self-reliance is the postulate of today’s featured song Society by Eddie Vedder from the movie Into the Wild. It reflects a struggle with the pull of materialism, echoing the journey of Christopher McCandless, the film’s protagonist. He leaves behind the comforts and trappings of modern life to search for truth and freedom in the wild. Allow me to digress a moment…
I have featured a lot of the music of Leonard Cohen lately, and he too sought solitude and renunciation when he spent years at the Mount Baldy Zen Center in the 1990s. His withdrawal from the material world was not a rejection of life but an attempt to reconnect with a purer form of existence—just like McCandless and the teachings of Luke 9:3 suggest. Cohen spoke about his life as a Buddhist monk here.
Director Sean Penn hand-picked iconic Pearl Jam frontman Vedder to provide the music for the film and said that as soon as he heard Vedder’s songs he “just felt that for sure this is the musical voice of (actor) Emile (Hirsch’s) character.” There is an intriguing Charlie Rose interview here with Sean Penn and Eddie Vedder discussing the movie and their collaboration.
Eddie Vedder said about his writing of the soundtrack: ‘I wouldn’t want to romanticize my input of the process, but..two weeks or three weeks went by and I kind of woke up and it was done. And I don’t really remember a whole lot about it…it was from some place and I’m not really sure where it was.‘
[Verse 1]
It’s a mystery to me
We have a greed, with which we have agreed
You think you have to want more than you need
Until you have it all, you won’t be free
[Chorus]
Society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
[Verse 2]
When you want more than you have, you think you need
And when you think more than you want, your thoughts begin to bleed
I think I need to find a bigger place
‘Cause when you have more than you think, you need more space
[Chorus]
Society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
Society, crazy indeed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
[Verse 3]
There’s those thinking more or less, less is more
But if less is more, how you keeping score?
Means for every point you make, your level drops
Kinda like you’re starting from the top
And you can’t do that
[Chorus]
Society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
Society, crazy, indeed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
Society, have mercy on me
I hope you’re not angry if I disagree
Society, crazy, indeed
I hope you’re not lonely, without me
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I didn’t know this song by Eddie Vedder and think it’s pretty powerful. While I can’t say I’m a religious person, philosophically, I can see how the less is more approach can be life-enriching. Less is more can also be a very attractive concept in music.
The whole ‘Into the Wild’ soundtrack is worth a listen, friend.
Yes, the ‘less is more’ philosophy is becoming more desirable to me as I age. ‘Slaps Hand’ – I shouldn’t desire anything haha
I like your association of it re. music. I couldn’t agree more. Cheers, man.