12 36 pm pdt [ simplifying ]
I was just reading Living the Simple Life by St.
James, which I set aside as I was cleaning out the bookshelf in my room
yesterday. [Did I mention that after our long hike my mom and I spent all
afternoon cleaning house, including moving some heavy furniture?
Goodness, I slept well last night!]
Here is a list of current complications in my
life:
- too many possessions
- packrat tendencies make it hard for me to part with objects
- unemployment
- no home [space] of my own
- an overwhelming need to please my parents
- too much junk mail
In my latter two years of college, I was working two or three jobs. I
made much more money than I spent, until I started dating Matthew. Then I set about to spoiling him,
which I still see to be an excellent use of my income.
When I sat down and thought about it, I determined that
I used about $12,000 a year. My father [thankfully] paid for school, so
that $12,000 is $1,000 a month for rent, utilities, food, and
entertainment. My rent was half that. Certainly I could see myself
spending more than that in the future. But I also could always see how to
keep spending down. If I were to make a modest $30,000 a year, that would
include a large sum of money for saving. I must here also point out that
I didn't (and still don't) have a car, which would certainly raise my
monthly spending.
Perhaps I shouldn't be putting in actual numbers.
Perhaps I should be speaking in generalities. Oh well...
This though process came about when I read:
... if Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, authors of Your Money or Your
Life, have been able to live on $500 a month for the past twenty
years, then many things are possible in terms of career and employment
changes for all of us. [page 46]
What set me apart from all of the idealistic
environmentalists I always found myself amongst is that I think capitalism
is great. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to make and spend
money. I always told Desirée that she should try making a
pair of shoes before she espoused the virtues of living off the land and
dropping out of the capitalistic loop completely. My heavy involvement in
environmentalism and animal rights has always been in the context of
capitalism and this society in which I have grown up. I have often
considered "dropping out of society" for a year or two, perhaps to go
trekking through Nepal or some such adventure, but I would never want to
remove myself from society completely and permanently.
I require a lot of space. I like to have a lot of books, plants, and photos. I enjoy a well-stocked kitchen. I
like to have mementos of the past, especially my childhood. I want a
large wardrobe from which to artfully construct the daily creation that is
my outfit.
I don't want to live on $500 a month (like those
authors). I like seeing movies and plays. I prefer to spend an obscene
amount of money on food. I love buying new books and vintage clothes. I
want to live somewhere nice and spacious, preferably with a garden. On
the other hand, I think we can all benefit from trying to simplify. I
think they key is to know that simplifying does not mean selling all your
possessions and moving to the woods. Simplifying is about identifying
complications (and I am proud to see that my list is quite short) and
trying to reduce and/or remove them. Simplifying is reminding yourself
what things are really important and then focusing on those things.
The key for me to simplify will be to find somewhere to
live. Then I need to move my possessions there, and make sure I don't
have anything extraneous. Once all the day-to-day-living items are out of
my parents' houses, I can
clean out and give away the greater portion of the built up detritus of my
childhood. I would also like a normal job at an office to fill some of my
time, and I would like to schedule in a standard chunk of time for working
on my book each day.
