"Make like picture"

In one of the Karate Kid movies, the old karate master is teaching the young kid how to make a bonsai tree. He tells the kid to get a picture in his mind of what the tree should look like, and then "Make [the tree] like picture."

I made a breakthrough recently in lightening our load of stuff by giving away (to a good home and not a landfill) two of my computers, the [Commodore] Amigas. That brings to mind the questions, why did I get them in the first place, why did I keep them so long, and why did I finally get rid of them.

I got them because I needed or wanted them at the time. They were less expensive than the "standard" IBM-compatible, and much more technologically advanced. I kept them, after I got other newer computers, because I had this picture in my head of me having a little computer lab at home and being some sort of computer expert. I got rid of them because the picture has changed. I now picture myself living in a sparsely-furnished house owning very little stuff, little enough so that when I am gone my kids won't be faced with the job of getting rid of all of it. Now that I have that new picture, getting rid of the impediments to reaching that picture becomes easier.

Our dependence on automobiles, practiced over so many years, has (in my opinion) created in our collective head a picture of ourselves constantly in motion, going any place we want to go, whenever we want to, without any negative consequences to the environment or our bank accounts. I have found that riding my bike to work has started to alter that picture in my head. I am developing a picture of myself not running here and there, using the car infrequently, transporting myself by bicycle when possible but not transporting myself anwhere at all unless I have to.

When that picture changes, I start to wonder what other pictures I have of myself, and if they should be examined and changed also. One physical act, commuting by bike, changed a mental picture, and now the changed mental picture is causing questioning of other mental pictures, and changes to other mental pictures are driving other physical acts, like getting rid of stuff I don't need because it doesn't fit in the picture.