Stuff

We have too much stuff, that's pretty clear to Diane and I. While I'll never give up my books, my laptop, or my cell phone (well, maybe the cell phone). I think the rest can go.

The question is when and why. In my mind the issues is to minimalize the impact on the kids (ie fast change isn't good), and my desire to work in tech (and therefore stay "current" on a slice of "stuff" - electronics and software. But I wrestle with the legitimacy of those arguments.

Then there is motivation, saving dollars, simplifying life, becoming less fixed to place are all great goals, but are they enough? What do you do with the excess money, more time, etc....

The impact and influence of stuff on the kids is interesting, it's not that Diane and I didn't grow up in a consumer society in the 60's and the 70's. But there were limits: a television in the living room, maybe a record player or stereo in the bedroom, going to a movie or two. In my house I'm sure there are more electronics than the entirety of 5 blocks of 15th street in NewCumberland in that era.

I remember Uncle Pepper's first computer at his house, it died, and the UPS hated his power, seems he only had 50amps. He had lived there for 30 years on 50amps with no problem using his tools, his tv, his stove, and his dishwasher. No one builds houses without 200amps these days.

Walking into the store in San Francisco's Chinatown, it was clear to me that there are no limits and that it all looked like junk to me. But the no limits applies to Best Buy as well, and maybe I need to think of Best Buy as a junk store as well.

Planning for Mud Volleyball Or Looking for a Frontier?

Last year the youth group of our church had a mud volleyball "game" at our farm in a retention pond. The idea was mine, but the outcome was unexpectded. First while I thought maybe 12 or so guys would show up from the church, about 80 people showed up, half girls, and half guys, with a bunch of people not from the church.

And while the first 10 minutes were "volleyball", the next 30 were flinging, wrestling, wallowing, and laughing anarchy. I had arranged for a firetruck to come and hose them off, which probably allowed me to return to the church the next Sunday.

This year they want to repeat, and they want to add a mud slide to this and the expected numbers are much higher.

So what is the insight here? I'm not sure, but I think that at least for the kids (and for a few adults as well), the desire to do something different is very large. Our highly pasteurized and suburbanized world allows this only to play out in illicit situations and relationships at times. In my past of living in a small town in the 60's bounded by a creek and a river, fishing, fort building in the woods, mud slinging, stripping down to your shorts and putting war paint on your body, whatever WAS the norm. We acted out beyond the frontier of the house and lawns in these ways and were not judged by the rules of not upsetting the lamps, the cats or the moms in the house.

Sociologist's talk about the loss of he frontier for America and it's impact. I think we all need a place where the "high civilization" rules don't apply, but the boisterous good fun rules do - we all need a personal frontier and to go to it occasionally.