I had made a post sometime ago about my desire to live a minimalistic life. I didn't go into detail at the time, but say that i would expand on that later down the road. I'm down the road. Yes, I am a self proclaimed minimalist, meaning I like it plain and simple, no frills, not alot around, just the basics. I was raised in a house that some would consider a "privledged" upbringing. It was my father that was loaded, I just lived with him so I got the rsidual effects of h is money. In our houe, you were paid off by doing anything that helped the household. Not like allowance, but if we did extra things like clean the kitchen or organize the pantries, that sort of thing. It got to a point where me and my sister could guess the amount of money that we were going to get by doing what 'favors' around the house. It's pretty pathetic looking back on it now, but at the time, in the 80's, it was great!!! Needless to say, I got pretty much whatever I wanted growing up.We lived in smaller town that was about 2 hours away from a large city and before the school year began, my father would give us a credit card and 2 store cards (Neiman Marcus & Nordstrom) and told us to head down to this city and buy our school clothes. That was pretty fun, I must admit, but here again...pathetic.
As I grew older I began to realize that money really doesn't make you happy. I mean sure, for a short time you are elated and thrilled by it and by what it has given you, but those things fade and you end up seeking out the next big purchase to obtain that high again. But I found myself going in the opposite direction when it came to money. I began to despise it and denounce it. I decided that I was only going to make enough money to pay my bills and have enough to save, that was it. I lived that way for 2 years, basically living in squalor. My parents (now divorced) just shook their head in disbelief. My father trying to give me money, probably more out of guilt and feeling like he needed to do something to make his son reconsider his decision to live like this. My mother thought that I was crazy but did tell me that she thought it was "kinda neat" that I was doing what I felt like I needed to do. My friend Jason and I took this little adventure to the extremes by living in a storage unit during winter then moving to the mountains during the summer. It was exhilerating. Living without rules, not having people breathing down our necks to get tedious things done like fax this or talk to them about that. We had a blast, and like I said we did this for 2 years and got some traveling done as well, but as things go, we knew we had to get back to a more civilized way of life and get jobs because we were almost out of money.
We returned back to our town after months of living in the mountains. We didn't let anybody know that we were back, we didn't have cell phones then. We just h oped that we would run into them at some point. One friday night we decided to go down to a bar that we all used to hang out at calle "the Office". As luck would have it, when we walked into the back by the pool tables there they were, a group of our closest friends drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. The reunion was impressive and well received.
As far as being a minimalist, I am now more than ever. I have my apartment that does have furnishings. Maybe a little more than I'd like to have, but it doesn't bother me so much right now. What bothers me the most is the amount of clothing that I came back to. Insane amounts of clothing. For 2 years I'd been alternating between 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of shorts, 4 t'shirts, a few flannels and some other random articles of clothing. However, the need that I used to have, the strong desire to walk away from everything that I own except for photos, music and some books is stronger than ever. THAT'S when I can tell that I'm ready to bolt. I feel suffocated and held down. Now i know what that strange character in the Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 40's meant when he said "Enough is too much!" It's defintely too much.