Perhaps the best things we do in life happen with serendipity, like the geek who set out to recreate a Vermeer painting. I seem to work best with goals, so here they are.
1) Buy Nothing
As in don’t buy anything for me. No pants. No shoes. No shirts. No socks. No cameras. No lenses. No jackets, no hats, no shoes or boots. No electronic gadgets, no books or music.
We live in the era of excess necessity that turns into out of control want and consumption. Our lives are full of surplus where we have seemingly unlimited choices of things we need in quantities and variety that are unnecessary. Choice is the hallmark of capitalism. We need shoes but we've got companies competing to help us choose the "best" and we are pummeled by constant reminders of what we need. This usually ends up with us not appreciating all that we have; we are sated on the over saturation of abundance. I was struck by this the other day walking around a store which was 65,000 square feet of shoes and there were row after row of women's boots. All to be bought and worn not out of necessity, but to make you look cute. I'd wager no owner will be riding horses in them, or walking through muddy streets. Not that there is anything wrong with looking cute, I appreciate my Pataguchi, I just feel a little out of balance and it seems most people never question why they consume. It's only a question of "which one do you like better" and "will this look ok with my white jacket". So many in the world don't have clean water, let alone multiple shoes or jackets.
Part of this is easy because I have everything I need but that's the also part of the point. I therefore shouldn't need to buy anything in 2014. And as I reviewed the list of things that I like to do and the things that I buy and the things I have : I have many of many things.
- I have more backpacks, tents, jackets, boots and running shoes (each) than fingers on one hand
- I have three cameras - just the “big kind”, not mention that I have several GoPro of the past several generations
- I have at least 3 sleeping bags, and that is just for me, not to mention the ones fro the rest of the family
- I have more plaid shirts than there are days in two weeks
- Trucker Hats - more than there are Fridays in a couple of months
- I have more pairs of glasses than years in a decade (I’ve got a “free” pair every year for the past while)
2) De-clutter Email
In helping me achieve goal one of not buying stuff, I have gone through and unsubscribed myself from all the “buy this” or you “need this” type of crap emails that I don’t need. I’ve also gone through and gotten rid of all that guilty email that I get because I should read it but I never do, like do this exercise or eat this healthy food.
3) Create More
I take a lot of photos. I “kept”, or at least didn’t throw away 16,650 photos in 2013, let alone all the ones I took but deleted. Of those I posted 1857 to Flickr, some of which were of “large” events like Trek where I posted 317 photos. One thing I haven’t been doing very much, very very little of actually is printing photos. I will therefore every month print one 20 X 30 inch photo, get it framed (rather inexpensively, but not cheap) and give it away for free. I’ll figure out the details of how to give it away later, but the first one will be coming up in January.
4) Don’t cut my hair for an entire year
Why? Why not? When was the last time you committed to something for a year? Challenge with some guys at work. Should be interesting. Could be the year of the Hat.
5) Grow my Beard - Be Santa
This is gonna take some grooming of my beard and in December some dying it white. Ever since Joe died, the greatest Santa I’ve ever personally known, I’ve been a bit let down by the church Christmas party Santas so I am gonna try it out myself.