Our memories are not in our things
It has been a few months since I’ve seen the Netflix Documentary Minimalism as well as reading Everything that Remains and Minimalism – Live a Meaningful Life. However, this lifestyle has fundamentally changed how I live my life and the experiences I have. So when Joshua and Ryan included Cincinnati on their 40-city speaking tour, I jumped on the chance to see them live and potentially ask them a question during their Live Podcast Q&A session. Statistics always fascinate me and it was shocking to hear that the average U.S. household contains 300,000 items!!!! That is difficult to fathom but ‘stuff’ adds up quickly – aka junk drawers and storage bins – mistakenly giving us the facade of a ‘well-organized hoarder’! They are not of the mindset is not against consumption, but that compulsory consumption is the problem.
When did I give so much meaning to all this stuff?
Unfortunately, the q&a line was too long to get to everyone but I got a closer vantage point whilst standing in line, anxious to ask a well-thought out and insightful question. The questions I hope to ask The Minimalists some day are the following:
- As younger generations are in the depths of the digital age, how does minimalism fit in to creating meaningful online communities with the growing concept of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)?
- For individuals (specifically college-aged) who are looking for their niche and friend group, how can we model minimalism with students in low to mid-SES who feel they need to buy things/food/experiences/ to ‘fit-in’?
- Since most ‘fads’ come in cycles (ie. health regiments, diets, etc.), where do we see minimalism in the future?
Adding value is a basic human instinct. Letting go adds value to others’ lives.
So what’s next? Looking ahead, my action steps/take-aways from the night are:
- Join the local Minimalist.org Meetup and attend once/month meetings
- Dig into other minimalist blogs/stories like Colin Wright’s ExileLifestyle
- Decide what comes next after the decluttering, since that is not the end result.
- Watch their TedTalk
- And finally,
Love people, use things. Because the opposite never works.
One thought on “Less is Now Tour”