now | mindwi.seedit

Just random thoughts that might become permanent writings in a subject page later on.

What would I pack if I had to leave in a rush?

Let's assume a big disaster. And treat it as a departure from your place of living as a minimalist travel opportunity. Doing this exercise will show me that I truly need.

My pack would contain: passport, wallet, keys, 2 t-shirts, 2 underwear, 2 pairs of socks, phone, cable, wall charger, spork, light jacket, sunglasses, allergy pills in a small ziplock, a book, a water bottle, deodorant.

All this would fit in a small backpack.

Now, next time I want to travel elsewhere, let reminds this list and stick to it.


Wealth

You're not wealthy, you probably have too much money to begin with and little common sense in an array of pre-fabricated decisions awaiting for you to be brainless.


Back to basic

As I am reading Digital Vegan by Andy Farnell, it struck me without notice: I no longer want to be dependent on technology. Long time ago, I realized that tech was controlling every aspect of my life. I started to scale back a bit, but it is still way too much in my opinion. I should try to go smartphone-less, to swap my shiny $1000 laptop for an old $50 laptop that runs Linux or an alternative OS, just for the sake of not being dependent on something or someone (a company).

When I ride my bike, I feel like I'm flying. That specific feeling, it should remain constant during my day instead of the low-energy, highly-solicited habits we developed through the years with having a smartphone glued to our eyeballs.

No longer I want or need to carry my digital leach everywhere. It includes a digital wallet, my music collection, my photo library, all contacts, a map to find anything, anywhere, a great camera, a web browser to find answers to any question, advertisements, time wasting, energy crushing, ...


Don't try

You know Charles Bukowski? I used not to. But I discovered him in a book titled The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson. True, the title isn't poetic, but the guy is. True also is that I'm not a fan of poetry.

Anyhow, the poet is renown for 2 words: Don't try.

Somebody asked me: "What do you do? How do you write, create?" You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks, you make a pet out of it."
- Charles Bukowski

It can be translated as: be yourself, don’t try to be what you are not.

That's exactly what anyone should aim for to fix most of the world's problems. Too often, few are trying to impress, trying to control, trying to manipulate, trying to take advantage, trying to ruin others. In my perspective, anyone should live for their own wellbeing without trying.

What am I saying is that our culture is obsessed with productivity, with improvement, with better, with more, but in the end, it doesn't change much for whom is trying. It does impact others though. When you try to get more out of your life, you end up wasting resource nobody owns and make others suffer so you can get better. And I'm as guilty as you.

Sit down and set back expectations to reduce your dependencies in life so others can live without suffering.


Lie

It doesn't make any sense at all. We are trapped in a manufactured lifestyle, where we go from air-conditioned home to air-conditioned workplace within a car often presented as a reward. Each day, we provide our waking hours to somebody else, for their profits, at our expenses, just so we can buy more shit we don't need.

I'm sick and tired to driving to work, sick of being told to consume more and more, sick of this whole mendacity of life. We need to start living a real life where money isn't the end, but a mean to resourceful days, not wasted hours and years for pointless goals.

Driving is a waste.

Over consuming endlessly is a waste.

Buying large property far from our points of interest is a waste.


Hoarding stuff

Live isn't a contest to collect the most stuff you can. Even to this day, I struggle with that. My Mr. Hyde has one bike, but can justify the purchase of a second one. Same with backpacks and other gear. May be I fear of missing out on the best stuff so I research for a better one, then keep the old one, so the cycle is infinite and we hoard and hoard.

But then my Jekyll wants to read about philosophical stuff, declutter non-stop and is looking for a more simple way to life, without stress, without the race.

Living in a world of abundance makes us miserable. Both Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are problematic in my story because it seems like we cannot live freely anymore: it's either we are a consumerism or we want to counter it with more anxiety of finding the best way to live.


Last day

Who knows when it will be your last one? What if you made something regretful just before that day? What if you realized that you'd forgotten to live during your entire existence? What if things did not align as you were expecting they would and you ended up where you are now?

First, gratitude and contentment are the first two words that come to mind. Be grateful for every new day you are alive on this planet. Be content of your achievements to this day.

Second, no guilt and slow life are what I think about. Don't feel guilty to change what seems inappropriate to you. Also, try to slow down your life to set your own terms, not someone else's.

To achieve a more meaningful life, I've been trying to focus on fewer, better aspects of it.


Simple

I want everything in my life to be simple as it can be.

I do:

I don't:


Kindness and kindless

Each day, examples of kindness are everywhere. Just look around and you can find really small gestures to help a neighbour. Holding the elevator door, making an eye contact with a pedestrian to ensure everyone's safety, saying a warmful thank you to a front-line worker, etc.

At the same time, the clash with the opposite behavior is real. Animosity, malice, bitterness, malintent are a few qualifiers I could use to describe what I see sometimes. Angry drivers, hasty shoppers, uncivilized citizens. Every time I witness a bad behavior, I feel bad not only for the receiver of the behavior, but also for the initiator. The angry driver might had a really bad day and cannot see that people surrounding are also to be considered. It doesn't excuse the behavior, but it can explain it.

My own answer to wrong behavior I could have is to just pull out of those situations. Don't get involved in conflicts, don't try to force your way through traffic, don't have to wait in line at a fast food restaurant, don't consume more than what you need, so others can simply live in a kind world instead of a mad one.


Lean life, slow the mind

While one shops, water keeps flowing.

While another drives a life for more, trees keep growing.

And while the last is influenced by hate and generate division, soil is neutral and provide necessities.

Late-stage, brutal capitalism and predatorism are not what I want to play of. Housing should be a right, not a privilege, not an investment where richs eat the poors, so one can die wealthy on the back of many.


Dropping

I feel like dropping everything. It needs to get out:

Fuck wealth, fuck SUVs, fuck snobbism towards others, fuck elitism, fuck prestige, fuck fame, fuck capital that allows fuckers to fuck with housing market, fuck everything that make us miserable as a society.