"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Possessions don't make us happy! Situations do. Possessions, desire, covetousness, craving, yearning, lust; these forces drive humanity. Somehow each generation of moral thinkers know these things are ultimately wrong and look for something … Continue reading Jobs, Work, and Taking Control of Possessions (an updated ramble)
Learning a thing or two from the past...Part 1, 21st century Westerners are not the first to minimalize. There's a lot of recent talk about Minimalism as a social movement and this fits well with my personal philosophy and my interests in preindustrial technology and survival. Not long ago, minimalism was mostly associated with artists, … Continue reading Thoughts About Minimalism and Survival
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Wise words from William Morris. This is the mantra that drives the entire vardo project. I try to keep this in mind for every thing I add and every part I build. Otherwise, isn't it just junk?
What are we seeking in the “Self Help” section of the bookstore? Does it help or is it just something more to purchase and put on the shelf? Here’s a good little post from Becomingaminimalist.org.
Becoming a minimalist involves convincing ourselves of just one thing.
There is enough.
Marketing would have us believe that we will never be enough or have enough. A recent trip to the thrift store revealed that there is a book out there to cure every problem we could possibly drum up. It made me MAD.
I stopped buying books about how to fix my image. As a woman I struggled for a time letting go of fashion and then it didn’t matter. I realized that people simply don’t pay that much attention to what others wear unless it’s outlandish. No one has really noticed that I stopped wearing makeup and quit coloring my hair. I didn’t give up on taking care of myself. Instead I drink more water, exercise, and eat a plant-based diet high in nutrients. I glow. So books about losing weight, exercise, or fashion don’t exist for…
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This goes against the grain of what so may of us are taught, but it says so much.
In our morning manager’s meeting the other day we had to go around the room and tell of our greatest accomplishments. I pondered and then stammered briefly about being able to let go of what people think of me. At first the question raised some insecurity in me. Had I accomplished enough by the age of 50? By whose standards? People mentioned their degrees, job titles, and owning homes. All I could think was how little any of that mattered to me. Goals are great and getting an education or a dream job is always a positive thing of course but I found myself looking beyond all of that. I remembered when my mother died. She was a great woman that was loved by many in her community as well as her family. She had a bookshelf full of self help books though, that showed her insecurities. How could such…
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A mid-40s couple restores a tiny canned-ham trailer, leaves their mundane careers, and takes off on a journey across the continent. Sounds pretty good to me. When it comes to making enough money to get by, the two have a unique system. “In our ideal setting,” Hutchison explains, “is four months of working somewhere, [or] … Continue reading Hamlet, A Tale of the Road Less Traveled
A ‘tender, post-apocalyptic love story’... I want to revisit this minimalist performance art piece with you for the weekend. Extremely clever, "acrobatic virtuosity," street performance. https://vimeo.com/109732643 from the Acrojou website: "A tender post-apocalyptic love story..." - Kate Kavanagh, review, The Circus Diaries A gently comic dystopia, set in a different time where everything has a … Continue reading The Wheel House
"A pine cut down, a dead pine, is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a man. Can he who has discovered only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to have discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant for his ivory … Continue reading Life, Destruction, and Incidental Use
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone." Walden, Henry David Thoreau 1854.
"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful," William Morris.
