Stuffocation and Writing Realizations

Stuffocation: A book about sacrificing buying power for experience power.

If you managed to survive my last few posts, you know I love the idea of less stuff. Getting rid of stuff has been my therapy for decades now and I'm only 26. So what can someone like me learn from a book like this?

More than I thought.

I originally stumbled on this subject while rotating through TED talks on YouTube. I liked what James Wallman had to say enough to reserve his book at my library. I totally skipped the first half of the book because I thought I already knew the "why" well enough and started skimming the heart of his message.

Firstly, I was totally impressed with his writing style. It's completely different from other books of this type. Instead of spending most of the time expostulating his own opinion and suggesting "how to" he takes most of his time relating different peoples experiences in beautiful detail. It reads like a documentary more than a thought book. For example, one part describes a woman as; "LeVally is tiny. She is five feet tall. She has porcelain skin that is flecked with freckles. She looks, from a distance, a little like a pixie doll."

That is beautiful writing. Where others would take maybe 10-20% to describe other people and their experiences and the rest of the time to prove themselves right, Wallman flips that and takes the time to paint a portrait of each of his subjects. It makes the whole thing visual and relatable and teaches his view more effectively than just making the argument. Now that I think of it, he did the same thing in his TED talk by taking most of the time to tell the story of his grandparents, his father, his brother, and himself. It's a wonderful style I wish I could copy.

Now to the message. The title is a little misleading. I came at the original TED talk thinking it was going to be a similar message that the minimalists have about how stuff suffocates society and that we can truly live if we just got rid of our stuff. Wallman's message is more about sacrificing stuff and high work, high pay jobs for experiences and quality time.

Stuffocation is more about rejecting the mainstream system in favor of a more customized life. You're not just rejecting consumerism to go and live in a cave. He is careful to explain that some consumerism is actually a good thing, but the consuming is based more on priority of life than an expression of wealth or "deserving" something. Kind of like how Tiny House dwellers have to really prioritize their possessions because they live in such a small space. Many of the people in his book still have normal jobs, they are just jobs based on their terms that maximize time to live.

As each story gets more fascinating, I regret skimming the book. I'm tempted to go back and read the whole thing a bit more carefully. I'm not done with it yet, but I already believe this is the smartest book I've read this year. It's the perfect middle ground between the outlandish and the accessible. If you are still struggling with the ideas of going with less and rejecting material status symbols in favor of experiences, this is the book for you.

I even learned something new about Henry David Thoreau. No English major can get through college without hearing about Walden Pond and how its every writers dream to live with the simplicity that Thoreau did. Just live simply, listen to the birds, and write all day. It was perfect. What could be more pastoral? Except Wallman just blew that writers dream out of the water by explaining that Thoreau only lived that way for two years, two months, and two days. He offhandedly states that Thoreau got bored and returned to society. That makes sense to me because people are my muse, but this is Thoreau, the god-father of total craft devotion. The gold standard for an ideal writers life style that my teachers always warned we could never live modernly. My mind was blown.

I'm excited to continue studying this book. Maybe I'll do another post on it when I am finished.

Personally I just did a paper cleanse of my tiny 81 square foot apartment bedroom. (I actually thought it was 100 and just had to double check for accuracy. Wow, I had no idea.) This included school papers and files of papers I thought I had to keep. The state of my room tends to be the state of my mind and it's been touch and go lately. The paper cleanse re-established my sanity and made the space feel a lot lighter. Lifting that tiny file box, about ten pounds lighter, felt very good.

Exciting thought: the Minimalists are coming out with a documentary called Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things on May 24th. Will definitely be blogging about that one.

Now it's confession time.

There is a critical error in my last few posts. As a writer, I can humbly admit this. My posts are full of big ideas, but they lack focus.

In short, they are lazy, unstructured, and without transition.

So basically the critique I always got on every paper or short story I wrote with a lazy eye and lack of proofreading. Every writer has their Achilles heel.

Listen, if I'm reading my own posts a month later and get lost, there is a major problem. I am big enough to admit it. The point of this blog is for me to practice and get better, not worse.

Here's to a promise to be a little better, to practice a little more seriously, and to strive for clarity and transitions.