The things that you own end up owning you

7 boxes of objects, approximately 100 books which I would never have read, 20 suits and the same in shirts. This is only a part of the “things” which I eliminated from my life this summer. Some things I gave away, others I threw away or sold.

I wonder how many things you own but never use, which could be useful to someone else. I wonder how much space is taken up in your office, or at home. Space which you could make junk-free, and together with the space, your mind too.

“Space-clearing” is a discipline which is spreading like an oil drop in our culture: “eliminate the excess and recuperate the essential”. For quite some time during my work trips, I have realized that I really do need very little. I sometimes forgot my razor, I sometimes forgot to take toothpaste, at times even my phone charger. And you won’t believe it :-))) I managed to survive :-)))

What a wonderful light feeling it is to know that we only need very few essential things. We live better and our quality of life starts benefitting from it immediately. After having rationally accepted this truth, I felt able to organize my life with more transparency.

As Wayne W. Dyer says:“When we pass from ambition to meaning, we truly understand that we do not need the surplus”. The only thing we need is a purpose and people to love, the rest is an extra.

“The things you own end up owning you”, says Tyler to a man frustrated by the loss of his house, in the film “Fight Club” :

Tyler: Do you know what a duvet is?
“Alias Cornelius”: It’s a comforter.
Tyler: It’s a blanket. Just a blanket. Now why do guys like you and me know what a duvet is? Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. What are we then?
“Alias Cornelius”: ….Consumers?
Tyler: Right. We are consumers. We’re the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra….
“Alias Cornelius”: Martha Stewart…
Tyler:Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha’s polishing the brass of the Titanic. It’s all going down, man! So fuck off, with your sofa units and your string green stripe patterns. I say never be complete. I say stop being perfect. I say let…let’s evolve, let the chips fall where they may. But that’s me, I could be wrong, maybe it’s a terrible tragedy..
It is a dialogue which I feel needs to be shared in times like ours. The film follows on with a series a debatabke quotes, but for me personally, the film gives two important messages. Further on Tyler says: “We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives”.
From this reflection, I have drawn two conclusions:

1) If you do not have a purpose you attach yourself to things

2) If you are attached to things, you have not yet understood your meaning in life

These are the reasons why man accumulates objects and shows off, because he has not found his “real” purpose; he has not made the jump “from ambition to meaning”. Even Robinson Crusoe lived his devastating experience on a desert island gathering items and building more than one shelter to hid his things. But what did he need them things for? From who was he hiding his belongings? He was alone with the ocean, why did he need to accumulate and keep?

Is it therefore a natural instinct to own things? Man’s defective reaction? Perhaps it is, but how it frees your mind to know that you only have one purpose to follow and people to love!

As I often say to my friends that I meet in the classroom: “That’s all…to return home…and hug the people you love”

“… and in case I don’t see ya…

good afternoon, good evening and good night!”…

(The Truman Show)

Virginio

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