I have been on a path to minimalism for about a decade. It is a weird path and I did not really do it on purpose all the time. But I love not having a lot of stuff. I literally only own a bag and a few things. I mostly use the bag to carry books that I checkout from the library. When I need a new set of clothes, I will go get a new set of clothes and throw these ones away. I have not been able to do laundry for years because you people poison my clothes very badly when I try to use a laundromat. So I have adjusted to wearing the same clothes for a few months and then just throwing them away and getting new ones. Not the most sustainable, but way cleaner than try to do with the terrorism at laundromats.
Dealing with the terrorism that you people have inflicted on me for a lifetime is what has driven me to minimalism. In the world the way it is today, things are literally used to kill you. Your things are literally killing you. They off gas chemical toxins and they have bad bacteria that make themselves at home in your body and kill your immune system. Things are killing you.
You know how hoarders have too much stuff? Did you know that is a symptom of Autism. Hoarding is associated with a C. Diff infection. And just because you are organized does not mean you are not a hoarder. One is covert and the other is overt(this book talks about organized people being covert hoarders). People with Autism tend to develop relationships with things easier than with people. This is why they get so attached to things. But we all have a C. Diff infection nowadays, so we all have Autism. Autism is a spectrum disorder. Just because you do not have Asperger’s genius like me or just because you are not nonverbal does not mean you do not have Autism. It is a spectrum disorder and depending on how big your C. Diff infection is you will move on the spectrum throughout your life. You know how some Autistic kids get better when they change their environment and lifestyle and they start talking again and such? This is because their infection gets better. It is an antibiotic resistant infection, so it does not react to traditional medicine well. Traditional medicine actually grows the infection. This is why C. Diff infections run rampant in hospitals and old folks homes.
One part of people being such consumers of material possessions and things is our C Diff infections. But there are many reasons why American society pushes consumerism on us. Don’t you think it would be easier to control someone who finds value and identity outside of themselves, rather than from the inside? If I wanted to control people, I would choose people who were overly focused on the external. Because it would be easy for me to control those external factors. Remember, environment dictates and controls epigenetics. If you can get people to do things on the outside that you want, you can control their insides on a gene and cellular level. Pretty neat, huh? You don’t really need mind control. You just need to control their environment or their desires.
You know if I was evil like my family, I could send you all on the ride of your lives. I have to admit it is scary to think about what I could convince you all to do. And it is even scarier how easy it would be because you all do not question authority or ask why you are being asked to do things. Dyslexic epigenetic triggers make you focus on how to do something rather than ask yourself why you are being asked to do something. But just because you have those negative epigenetic triggers does not mean that you have to let them control you. You can literally just will yourself to think with your logical mind consciously. You don’t have to be a zombie or the walking dead. Granted, dyslexia may make it hard for you to read, but it is not stopping you from thinking.
“Did it take getting everything I ever wanted to realize that everything I ever wanted wasn’t what I actually wanted at all?”
When I lived in Las Vegas, I had everything I thought I wanted. I lived in a 5 bedroom house with a pool with just my two dogs. Then I moved to a 3 bedroom house with a pool on a golf course. The golf course was supposed to make it more of what I wanted, right? (I don’t play golf by the way.) And when I lived in these houses they were mostly empty. I could not imagine if I had tried to fill them with furniture and stuff. I literally had a whole bedroom filled with cardboard boxes because even though I had not filled up the house. I had acquired enough stuff that I knew I would need the boxes when it came time to move.
I loved the freedom I had in Las Vegas. And I loved that I had gotten away from my family more. But I was not happy even though I had gotten everything I thought I wanted. My partner at the time kept trying to get me to want more things and more expensive things. Like more expensive purses and more expensive shoes. I don’t want a purse that costs more than the cash I have in the wallet inside it. And I sure as hell don’t want to carry around a purse that is worth thousands of dollars so I have to worry even more about someone trying to steal it. Expensive things did not make me happy. I like nice things that are durable and have utility. These things bring me value, but they do not make me happy. And I do not need many things.
When I moved to southern Arizona, I packed up my Jeep with my two dogs and we moved to somewhere I had never been before. It was so freeing. And it took till this revolution started in March 2021 for me to get rid of the rest of my things. When I left southern Arizona, I packed a small bag of clothes(the same bag I have now, the clothes are long gone), a box of journals, a box of important papers, and my dogs. And when I left my Jeep behind in June, a couple months ago, I left all that stuff behind. Minus my dogs they died on this revolution. Thank God, because you all tortured them to death. And now they are finally safe.
Never did I think not having things would make me so happy. I tell you all that I am happy and I don’t know why. I have said this over and over throughout this revolution. I knew one part was I feel like I am doing what I am destined to do, I am fulfilling my purpose. But the other thing is I no longer have things weighing me down. I don’t even have goals anymore. I didn’t realize what I was doing, but my whole life anytime I have tried to accomplish something and created a goal. My family had you all destroy me and stop me from achieving it in anyway possible. So, I just stopped with the goals. I have direction. And that direction is walking more towards my purpose and fulfilling that. But with no real clear road markers. Even these book reviews. My Mom, or maybe it was my cousin Jessica(they are so alike I get confused-brain injuries on the left side), wanted me to number them and have a number that I wanted to achieve. But I just want to learn and absorb and create more connections in my brain, aka intelligence.
“External inspiration can be the trigger, but internal motivation is what fuels one’s desire. Thus, when you discover your true motivation, you don’t need an arbitrary goal.”
People like my family try to get you to live by the external no matter what you are doing. Even setting goals can be a dangerous pursuit. When I did real estate in Sierra Vista, Arizona, my sales manager was always trying to get me to measure my success and create all this fancy footwork to create goals. And they looked down on me because I did not want to have a calendar and do things the way they did them. I was the most successful at inside sales and they looked down on me because I did not know about this stupid imaginary game. But also because I did not want to do things like they did. I relied on internal motivation and desire rather than external. When you allow external motivation and desire to be your driving forces you are easy to control and manipulate.
Never did I think my lack of desire to do things like other people was apart of my minimalism. But this book linked it together.
Dare to be different. Being minimal is different. But god I love it! I love being me. And if I am constantly taking care of things, how can I really be me?
Are you being you? Or are you just being the collection of things you have collected? You cannot hoard who you are. You have to cultivate who you are and it is not the same as creating a collection. I do not own myself. I be myself.