July 29th, 2008
The Minimalist Manifesto
From ‘The Minimalist Manifesto‘ –
Stuff ties us down. It weighs on the mind. It gives us back pain when we carry it around. It gets stolen, broken, or obsolete, then pollutes the world as it breaks down in a landfill. Advertising tells us that stuff will make us happy, and we want to believe that purchasing can solve our problems. Rarely, stuff can actually deliver the goods. But beyond food, clothing and shelter, stuff is not the answer to the most pressing issues in our lives. Worse yet, in a very complicated world, it isn’t just physical clutter that raises our anxiety level — we have too many choices — where to eat, what job to take, where to live, what to read.
Minimalism starts with believing that everything we bring into our lives has a cost to our soul. Every choice we allow ourselves to ponder extracts its pound of flesh. Every dollar spent costs the time it took to earn that dollar. Whatever we do or accumulate has a high bar to make up for these problems. We write about minimizing.
The Minimalist and I speak like one.
