Editor’s Note: I failed to post this essay by Wendy before Christmas. I humbly apologize, and I know readers will be both encouraged and prodded by this now-updated piece. –Jeff
In the last of what were my single years, I lived alone in a ground floor apartment across the street from Union College, where I had been a rather unenthusiastic student in the mid-90s. I had broken up with my boyfriend (who is now my husband), and my stepsister, who had shared this apartment, had moved far away and I found myself really alone for the first time in my life. And I didn’t like it very much.
I was lonely. I had cats that would sleep behind every curve of my body at night–ensuring a minimum of tossing and turning–and this helped. But cats couldn’t pay bills, or advise me on work. To quell the feelings of being alone, I began to control the only thing I could control–my stuff. Somehow, I had managed to collect not just every paper I had ever written in my failed college career and all the way back to kindergarten, but I had also collected the papers of others because I had a garage. Allow me to explain: Apparently, having a garage leads one’s friends to believe that they do not need to go through their things before they move- simply backing their vehicle up to my garage and unloading were all that was required. Surely Wendy could use this stuff, right? Yeah, well, no. I clearly remember the moment when I looked at my garage and found the meaning of life.
Simplify. Life is not “stuff”, it leans more towards freedom from stuff, and Wendy had work to do in that area. It is safe to say that I didn’t and don’t place pets in the category of “stuff”. Read more »
Filed under: Adv Activists, Reflections | Tagged: consumerism, economics, environment, sustainability | 1 Comment »