Building a working definition... — 9 months ago
Fulfilling this goal first requires a definition of what it means to live simply. As with many things, there are likely as many potential definitions of “living simply” as there are people…
I think of living simply as unencumbering oneself of both material possessions and social roles or responsibilities; however, this does not necessarily mean giving everything away and running off in search of some Utopian ideal. For me, I’m simply striving not to let myself get bogged down by the material or by the social responsibilities that get placed upon me; it’s also about having clearly demarcated “needs” versus “wants”. I don’t want to allow these “things” to define me in such a way that I can’t see beyond them to appreciate life for the beautiful, short-lived, and inherently fragile thing that it is. I don’t want the sense of entitlement or false sense of “need” – that seems so pervasive in our culture these days – to embed itself in my life.
Certainly, there needs to be an element of physical and social house cleaning to slough off the dead weight so that I can move forward. Beyond that, there also needs to be psychological change so I can better recognize and avoid the ever-tantalizing fallacies encountered in daily life before I get caught up in them…
