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Thread: Lucas' journal: a minimalist mission

  1. #21
    Senior Member lucas's Avatar
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    Thanks guys for your thoughts and input...
    Stevie, I really identify with the thoughts of "I had one and threw it out and needed one; I'd better not toss this one" - I've been working on that. I've had the experience of tossing something then 'pining' for it the next day, but within a couple of days it's completely forgotten and I could care less, so I'm trying to remain conscious of that fact...

    And Citrine, thanks for your comment, which made me laugh! I've always been pretty slim, but just this year a bit of a belly started to appear , so I'm working on getting rid of it by.... drumroll please... eating less!

  2. #22
    Senior Member fidgiegirl's Avatar
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    Lucas, interesting about the "pining." I dug a few layers deep into the link EarthSky provided, and that author is a big fan of packing up what you aren't sure about for 30 days, then if you haven't needed to open the box, donating it sight unseen. I thought it would be a good idea for me and DH.
    Kelli

    My gluten free blog: Twin Cities Gluten Free
    Our house remodel blog: Our Fair Abode

  3. #23
    Senior Member lucas's Avatar
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    Hello friends,

    So it's after 11pm where I am, and I'm just now finishing work.... uyyyyyy.... I am not designed to be a workaholic, but from time to time, work seems to require that I pretend to be one... thankfully it's not like this all the time... Anyway, I finally got rid of the big sack of 'purged' clothes from my wardrobe today... I haven't had a chance to take it to the 'used clothes pick-up point' before now, but I knew I needed to get out of the house for at least 15 minutes, so I took the opportunity to grab the sack and walk to the spot where I thought the container for depositing old clothes was.... it was definitely in that spot a few months back! As you may have gathered I walked some distance (with a surprisingly heavy sack of clothes in my arms) only to discover that the container had been removed... and so began a little odyssey around my neigbourhood looking for the damn thing! In the end I happened upon a charity that takes in old clothes, but needless to say their office was shut for the evening... so I left the sack on the porch and hopefully it will be found in the morning... I figure that if anyone takes it away, well, they obviously needed the clothes more than I did anyway... and carrying the damn sack all the way back home again was just too much distress!

    I'm now going to have a quiet cup of tea and collapse into my pit... ahum, bed.... Do any of you guys ever find that the universe 'tests' your minimalist efforts like this? I guess anything worth doing is worth doing even if it's a bit difficult from time to time... I hope you're all keeping well..

    All the best,
    Lucas

  4. #24
    Senior Member fidgiegirl's Avatar
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    Argh! Hate it when stuff like that happens!
    Kelli

    My gluten free blog: Twin Cities Gluten Free
    Our house remodel blog: Our Fair Abode

  5. #25
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=lucas;114174]Do any of you guys ever find that the universe 'tests' your minimalist efforts like this?/QUOTE]
    "What you resist, persists." Yes, the Universe is doing this to you to as a test. Fortunately, we don't have to get a 100 on the test to pass.

    Happy Thanksgiving, Lucas.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  6. #26
    Senior Member lucas's Avatar
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    Good morning friends,

    Black Friday! Yuk! I have to confess that today I feel glad that I am not in the US. I currently live in Spain (I'm from Ireland orginally), but I will be decamping to New York - the global mecca of consumerism - at the end of December as I work for human rights organization that's based there and they've asked me to 'come back to the mothership'. My girlfriend is from Florida, and she has been regaling me with stories of her family's 'Black Friday extravaganzas' (which she found unbearable but her mother and sisters loved). It sounds pretty awful. I was reminded of a Colombian friend, who also works in human rights, who some years ago spent a few weeks meeting members of Congress to explain the potential dangers of the free trade agreement for vulnerable people in Colombia (rising costs of food and medications etc). She told me that she spent an hour standing in Times Square staring at the huge billboards and feeling awestruck by the sheer scale of the effort to 'sell, sell. sell'. For the first time, she explained, she felt a new understanding of the imbalances in international relations - it was a bit like 'if people in the North are that obsessed with consuming, no wonder the world is out of balance'. Of course, Times Square can hardly be taken as representative of Western society (thank god!) - and economic relations between countries are not a zero-sum game - but it's interesting to see how the advertisements of Times Square impacted someone involved in fighting poverty in a middle-income country (not even a poor country!)...

    Oh, and thanks to Stevie for your feedback. It's good to be reminded that minimalism isn't a test I need to 'ace'. And by the way, I was reading some of the threads in the Public Policy section, and your posts bring some welcome reasonableness. (I've been restraining myself from engaging too much in the Public Policy section, as it would be all too easy for me to get drawn into a row)

    Thanks guys!
    Lucas

  7. #27
    Senior Member fidgiegirl's Avatar
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    Yes, it's pretty disgusting to me, too. We are actively resisting, yet the siren call still threatens to seduce us . . . we saw some coupons at our fave outdoor store and almost planned a trip before stopping to think that there is nothing we need, not even at a discount, from that store!

    When you say "decamp," do you mean moving or visiting?
    Kelli

    My gluten free blog: Twin Cities Gluten Free
    Our house remodel blog: Our Fair Abode

  8. #28
    Senior Member lhamo's Avatar
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    Hope you enjoy New York! It is a great place to live and you can do so frugally if you are mindful about things, which it sounds like you are. Do you know where you will be living yet? We used to live in Jackson Heights, which is a neighborhood I highly recommend. Great mixture of ethnic restaurants and grocery stores (we would regularly hit the Indian, Chinese and Latin American grocery stores on a weekend stock-up shop) and nice old housing stock (much of the neighborhood is a historic district). Prices have gone up for housing since we lived there, but it is still reasonable compared to other places near Manhattan.

    lhamo
    "Seek out habits that help you overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite." Seth Godin

  9. #29
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    Fascinating background and perspective. As an IR/policy person myself, I get it.

    Besides sell, sell, sell, we Americans also tend to pay premium prices for things once touched or owned by celebrities du jour, some of whom do nothing requiring artistic talent. It's quite fascinating, really. I live in Hollywood and once worked at an auction house. Many stories of people practically selling their souls to hell to afford a piece of "magic."

    Anyway, looking forward to your posts.

  10. #30
    Senior Member flowerseverywhere's Avatar
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    Many of us in the US did not visit one store or buy one thing online during this black friday season.

    Time with family, hobbies, enjoying nature, cooking, exercising, reading, meditating etc. were wonderful ways to spend the holidays.


    The media tries to brainwash us into thinking everybody is out shopping and accumulating- it just isn't so.

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