The journey to de-materialization

Here it is. Half way point in life. I've had a pretty good life and I've been reasonably successful from a 'material' perspective (titles, jobs, houses, cars, investments, stuff). I've come to a realization: All this 'stuff' owns me. I don't own it.

Intellectually, I've known this for awhile. Back in my silicon valley days, I worked with a fellow named Corey who had a grip. He developed software for Apple and lived in a apt. over a 6 car garage as the 'groundskeeper' (free rent) on a 4 house estate in Atherton. His main job? Take care of the private zoo the family kept (I kid you not).

I asked him if it ever made him feel odd, living among so much money and he said no and told me the reason was something the wife told him: "All we do is fly around the world to our houses and our possessions and make sure they're all ok. Some days it feels like we don't own this stuff. It feels a lot more like it owns us".

When I was in my 20's, I was a technology hound. I always had the latest of everything. A friend of mine, walking through my place one day commented: "Man Scott, you must be Boulder County's leading consumer!" In a sense, he was right. Not that it's wrong, but, at this point in life, it's not necessarily right either.

Like I said, intellectually, I get it. Our stuff owns us, and , as the years go on, like most Americans, I accumulate. Here I am now on the North side of my 40's and I hits me how right she was. This stuff owns me.

So... I'm going to try something. I'm going to de-materialize. Get rid of all the extra stuff that's just not needed in my life.

I'm not going native, giving away all my money or turning monk here. I haven't found religion, gotten a guru or read some self help book telling me to do this. It just strikes me as the right thing to do. It's really very simple: I'm going to try to get rid of whats not needed in my life. It doesn't mean life in a tent or out of a van (although who knows.. maybe that's what I'll find I want). It means getting to a point where I don't feel like I'm consuming so much; using up so many more resources (goods, services, STUFF) than I need to.

I expect this starts with the stuff but I also expect it'll move into other areas as well as time progresses and I gain a little wisdom around what I'm trying to do here. And I'm sure many others have done this as well and I'll be checking that out- betcha there's even a movement, association and (many) websites about it. We'll see.

But I do know this: It's the right time and it feels like the right thing to do. De-Materialize.

I'll write about my experiences doing this here in this blog. I doubt many will find it interesting, hell, I may even make it private- this is more of an intellectual exercise for me, and a way of keeping track of progress and recording what I learn more than anything else.

Funny, just thinking of doing this makes me feel a little bit more free.