Sufficiency vs. Superfluity
Today, a word play and a profound concept, courtesy of my great-grandfather Joseph Berks, also known as Poppop Joe.
“I’ve had a sufficiency. Any more would be a superfluity.” - Joseph Berks, my great-grandfather
My great-grandfather was a small man with thick, coke-bottle glasses, a round belly, and an unhurried way about him. At the end of every meal he would lean back, smile quietly, and declare, “I’ve had a sufficiency. Any more would be a superfluity.”
That was our signal that he was finished. Satisfied. Complete.
As a child, I never thought much about those words. They were simply part of the rhythm of our family meals.
Now, decades later, I hear them differently. He wasn’t only talking about food. He was expressing a way of being in the world. A deep contentment. An understanding that there comes a point where enough is truly enough.
The dictionary defines superfluity as: an excess; something unnecessary because there is already more than enough.
Our culture is built on the assumption that more is better. More success. More experiences. More followers. More possessions. More productivity. We are taught to keep reaching, accumulating, optimizing. There is always another summit just beyond the one we’ve climbed.
But what if one of life’s great wisdoms is learning to recognize sufficiency? Not settling. Not giving up on our dreams. Simply knowing, in this moment, what is truly enough.
I’ve spent years cultivating gratitude for the blessings in my life, both big and small. But gratitude and sufficiency are not quite the same thing. Gratitude is acknowledging what you have, sufficiency is knowing it is enough.
Today’s Ceremony
Find a quiet place and make three lists.
On the first, write what is already enough in your life. Relationships. Experiences. Skills. Health. Wealth. Time. Whatever feels complete.
On the second, write what has become superfluous—what you already have in abundance, perhaps even more than you need. Objects. Activities. Clothing. Books. Cars. Pints of ice cream in the freezer.
On the third, write what you genuinely long for more of.
Notice what happens after making the first two lists. Does the third become shorter? Does your longing become clearer? Does it shift from wanting more things to wanting more presence, more courage, more love, more time with the people who matter?
The invitation today is to simply recognize sufficiency where it already exists. And to let that sufficiency fill you up.