I’m living on-the-fly.
Ever since I got thrown back to my iBook, something peculiar has been going on. I refuse to keep things anymore. With the demise of my desktop PC, I lost quite a number of documents, tons of pics, and a couple gigs of music, and not a day has gone by when I’ve looked back.
I’m really sorry for Cas over at BrightMeadow, whose site went down, and I really can’t wait for her to get it back up (hm, peculiar wording there), but unless the Apocalypse takes place any time soon and the four horsemen ravage WordPress.com, that’s not something that’s going to happen to me.
Right now, I’m listening to Holy Fuck (they rock, thx Rich) on deezer.com, reading a few feeds, tagging stuff on del.icio.us. I haven’t downloaded a thing in weeks. Every text I write goes here or on Google Docs and I tried Google Presentations for the first time (and liked it).
I’m buying people blogs so they don’t have to send (and keep, and organize, and store) emails. Or worse: text me.
But it goes further than that.
Normally, I read a couple magazines or papers a week, but these days I’m giving them away before I’m half-way done with them. Last week I chucked a bunch of clothes. Next Saturday, I’m going to the recycling centre to toss even more. I’m cleaning out.
When I try explaining this to people, they give me funny looks. They don’t seem to feel comfortable around nomads it seems. No worries. Get me a Kindle as soon as it comes out here, and I’m not sure I’d even buy another book.
Seriously, all the stuff we’re dragging around with us all our lives… Are you really going to sort through those newspaper clippings you kept since college? Is anyone interested in that drawing you did when you were ten? And, trust me, those old love letters really aren’t worth the reminiscing.
And all that stuff on your hard drives, if you haven’t looked at it in a year, what else is it but a bit of electromagnetic residue on a piece of metal?
Yesterday is old hat, next week the distant future. Give me here, and give me now. And tomorrow’s gonna be a freaking adventure too.
Google it if you don’t believe me.
*This statement holds true until 48 hours of posting, after which it will be deemed null and void. Any resemblance to previous or future statements is entirely coincidental and the result of your own desire to connect and look for patterns that make sense.
Tags: nomadic lifestyle
6 December 2007 at 12:08 am
I agree completely with your sentiment. I just moved and realized that I had so much crap sitting around in my house that I just wanted to get rid of, it was incredible. I would have gotten rid of a lot of it, too, if I had taken more time to move. Instead I just stuck it in boxes for the time being and stored it. So now, I’m planning on having a huge garage sale in the spring when things start warming up. I want to downsize a lot. It’ll feel great.
I also recently heard a guy who learned about a woman who only owns something like 300 possessions total. He decided to try it out and set a goal for 1,000 posessions. He reached his goal and set a new goal of 500 posessions and, last I heard, he was down to about 750 or so. He says that he only has four bowls, four plates, and four sets of flatware because that’s all he needs. Pretty crazy and inspiring if you ask me.
6 December 2007 at 12:36 am
Thanks Joe, for commenting and agreeing :-) But you’re right: moving house always is a good possessions filter. And as far as plates and stuff go, I have about the same already. I’ve noticed it’s great for limiting the washing up too.
6 December 2007 at 5:19 am
I completely agree. The weird thing is that the majority of my circle of friends are in the same mental boat. Maybe we’ve all bought into the “buy buy buy” mentality for so long we now need to purge ourselves – in mind and body.
6 December 2007 at 7:46 am
I’m still lamenting the fact that our network hard drive died in the last week or so, taking around 400 gb of documents, photos, videos, an entire iTunes library, and loads of other stuff with it. Not fun, but you appear to be handling the same sort of situation far better than I am.
One thing, though: would you really never buy another book again? Gigabytes of data are one thing, but I absolutely couldn’t live without my books–the ones I can hold in my hands, turn the page, and even smell the paper. I love that!
6 December 2007 at 8:12 am
Real books can’t reset themselves or freeze, or simply wipe themselves out. Aside from the coolness factor of real books (nods Mr.Lestarjette) most books useful to someone such as myself, a fledgling historian, don’t come in digital format and probably won’t in my lifetime. Most books in general I believe still don’t come in digital format. Not to mention the proprietary format issues and transferring them, what about lending them out… etc etc. (Can you tell I don’t like the idea?).
Here’s the history talking but physical items are a connection to the past, a connection to who you are and the journey you took to get there. I used to think that I didn’t need anything but what’s in my head. And it’s almost entirely true, that’s all you NEED. But what about your connection to memory? Say you have a child, their first steps in a video? Or when you’re 75 and talking to your buds about a mutual friend who happened to pass on a few years earlier, that fishing trip may suddenly take on more importance than a simple fishing trip. If you’re truly epicurean in your outlook, or stoic in your desires than perhaps I’d believe you but the fact you have this blog makes me doubt it :).
Need and want, not so fine a line in my opinion. Need is only food, warmth, and water, want is where life takes place. Things are just a physical reflection of that want, and a useful tool to help you relive it.
6 December 2007 at 6:32 pm
Who are these people who will take magazines from you? I need to find some gracious magazine receivers, too. ;)
I have lived in my current apartment now for 4 years. That’s the longest since I’ve been in the city, really. And there’s a whole lotta crap lying around. Yes, CRAP. When you don’t have to move, you don’t have to choose that which is important enough to take along with your non-nomadic existence. :) Essentially, I’m not dragging anything anywhere … which is too bad for my inner minimalist.
10 December 2007 at 9:52 pm
haven’t got much time to comment, busy making inventory of humongous collection of useless tidbits and decoding voynitch manuscript first results indicate that it is probably an intricate recipe for bouillabaisse.
If you’re serious about going all Diogenes, I’d be more than happy to take your copy of Gravity’s rainbow off your hands.
Funny, just heard Janis Joplin squeal that freedom was just another word for nothing left to loose.
Must count stereoscope pictures now.
10 December 2007 at 10:09 pm
Hah, thanks all. Good comments. Touch a man’s books and you touch his, um, well other things.
True, I’m not sure I’d get rid of my books voluntarily. Perhaps I’m just going through a phase where they’re not much of a part of my life. And I wouldn’t sit weeping in my barrel should they, for some reason, disappear. I still like them, though.
However, I seem to have grown out of some sort of book-hungry, faux romanticist book greed I used to be subject to not that long ago. A strange form of vicarious nostalgia.
Add to all that, of course, that the Kindle is a very bad example indeed. I’m waiting for Apple to release the iBook. No, wait, I have one.
Er, you know what I mean.
12 December 2007 at 8:48 pm
[...] is right when he argues that getting rid of stuff and non-permanency can be very liberating. I’ve only just started to accumulate stuff in my house in the past year or so after years of [...]