The Incessant Bookworm

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:

1. 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)?
2. 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’?
3. 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.