Chasing Utopia, Family Imagines No Possessions

[mia]

Yesterday I hauled a couple of boxes of useful things to my local Goodwill pick-up trailer, and came across this article just now. Sounds good to me.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17texas.html

...Though it may not be the stuff of the typical American dream, the voluntary simplicity movement, which traces its inception to 1980s Seattle, is drawing a great deal of renewed interest, some experts say.

“If you think about some of the shifts we’re having economically — shifts in oil and energy — it may be the right time,” said Mary E. Grigsby, associate professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri and the author of “Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement.”

“The idea in the movement was ‘everything you own owns you,’ ” said Dr. Grigsby, who sees roots of the philosophy in the lives of the Puritans. “You have to care for it, store it. It becomes an appendage, I think. If it enhances your life and helps you do the things you want to do, great. If you are burdened by these things and they become the center of what you have to do to live, is that really positive?”

Juliet B. Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College and author of “The Overspent American,” said the modern “downshifters,” as she called them, owed debts to the hippies and the travel romance of Jack Kerouac....

[LiberalEsto]

1. Once upon a time

back in the early 1970s, I was a hippie and believed one should not own more than I could carry in my backpack. However, books started accumulating, and eventually I succumbed to the concept of owning a frying pan, a cooking pot, a blanket and pillow, etc.

In the 1980s I had kids, and it is UNBELIEVABLE how much stuff you accumulate when you have a baby. And even if you don't buy it yourself, people buy it and give it to you as baby gifts. At some point I decided it would be nice to have furniture to sleep on, sit on, and eat on. We bought a house, and suddenly it was filled with kids' toys. Now we're trying to clear out some of the surplus. At least I am; my husband is a confirmed pack rat who hoards old notepads, newspapers and so forth.

Even after all this time, I still firmly believe in not owning anything worth stealing. No expensive jewelry, no fancy electronics. We drive old clunkers. Much of our furniture is from yard sales, though it looks pretty nice. I guess I never developed the urge to buy expensive toys and show them off to impress the neighbors.

[mia]

2. "I still firmly believe in not owning anything worth stealing."

I'm with you here. The last things that were of any value to me were already stolen...some jewelry
passed on to me by my grandmother and mother-in-law. As family heirlooms, they held a lot of sentimental value. I've never bought a stick of new furniture either.

[Warpy]

3. I inherited some very good jewelry from my mother

and some of it was from my grandmother and great grandmother. It wasn't my style, I prefer turquoise and malachite to bling, but I appreciated the thought. It got stolen. I swear, the neighborhood thieves can smell gold.

I also inherited money. I surprised myself by being completely uninterested in replacing my thrift shop life with matched pieces from furniture stores.

Instead of taking pride in things, I find myself taking pride in the scores of people pictured on my Kiva page, people who are working their way out of poverty with my help. That's where my true riches lie. No thief can take that.

I'm not to the point of posting a "property is theft, walk in" sign on my door the way I did in the 60s. I dislike uninvited guests. However, if I find myself having to skedaddle fast, I'll just take my hard drives with me and never look back.

That's a feeling I like.