Thursday, July 5, 2007

Minimalism and yuppihood

Minimalism and yuppihood apparently can and do co-exist.

All I had to do to get this principle experientially was to just look at my three closets. Right.

I remember feeling so good about myself a mere number of months ago when my significant other's parents came to the place and brought a bunch of 'decorative' furniture which I found suffocatingly heavy but had to accept politely.

"Don't these people get the principle of consolidation?" I remember thinking. To myself, of course. Fastforward to now and I detect the same behavior in myself.

While mentally I was cognizant of the importance of traveling and living light, reality was singing a different tune. And by reality, I mean closets.

Stuff bothers me. I enjoy minimalism and I thought I was being minimalistic, but nein!

Ergo, I did what I meant to do a few months ago but simply lacked the right incentive, time, and necessary resources, i.e., energy and such.
So, I gave much of what I was not using and a good measure of what I was using, to those who might not be as fortunate. The pile sported a decadent number of stuff accompanied by a boatload of guilt: a guilt of yuppihood!

How can a so-called minimalist acquire so much? Granted, many of the items were acquired either linearly i.e., via me, or in a serpentine manner, [by this I mean, they were gifted to me], but still, nobody needs so much. And while by common definitions of material accumulation, I am quite conservative, still....

And it feels like I can claim back one of my trademark phrases, i.e., 'I enjoy traveling light.'
Or at least lighter.

A toast to minimalism and resource consciousness.

2 comments:

Erka said...

Funny,my husband was just explaining this term (yuppie/ yuppihood) to me the other day, and then I come and read this post! Where have I been, huh? Yeah, I am not keeping up with the rest of the world very well...
I too am a big fan of "living light." (I don't travel much lately) My clothes only take up only half of our rather small bedroom closet. This way I can afford to get new stuff every year and not get very tired of my clothes.

B.R. said...

Exactly. I catch your drift :-)
Minimalism is a good thing to 'own.'