Do you believe in minimalism?
if you mean deliberately reducing the number of “things” and being more careful about quality over quantity, then it’s yes.
If you mean: strict adherance to denying yourself ALL extravagances, then it’s NO!
Surely it’s about balance isn’t it? That starts with being content with what you have and priortising the essential above the wasteful.
It could get complicated at this point. Why? Because if you live in the affluent West, you have a different staring point to someone who lives in a “3rd world” type country.
For example, my Greek family were from an island on the West coast and they were poor. My mother was sent to ‘work’ (you can’t say slavery any more but it was!) in Athens for a rich family.
Her 12 brothers and sisters, similar story. So when she met a handsome British soldier who could whisk her away to the UK, even a 1950’s England was kilometres better than Athens!
The family had nothing, really. Zilch, zero, nada, nowt. How minimalist is that! Not by choice of course.
Anything was better than that! But, there was soon 7 in the family and my Dad worked hard in several jobs to make ends meet.
I could have thought that when I got to work I’d like to have ‘good’ things but after a while I came to realise that it was capitulating to the mores of Western society rather than making a personal choice.
Since then I’ve tried not to encumber myself with “things” because they don’t add a smidgeon to your life.
In fact, too many smidgeons and suddenly you’re up to your ears in debt, wondering where all the money has gone and the anxiety levels just went through the roof.
So, ‘believe’ in minimalism? – well subject to the above interpretation, yes.
How about you?
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