Contentedness can be cheap

I've spent most of today moving stuff from the house to the third dumpster. If the stuff in the house was that valuless, in a sense I was living in a dumpster. Most of the stuff I'm throwing away now, on shelves, in the house, had not been touched in years. I got a clue about this when I spent most of the last quarter of 2002 in New York. I did pretty well with a suitcase, knapsack, laptop and cellphone. There really wasn't much more that I needed, or much more that I could even use.... I realize I probably would be happier with a really nice room, a large one, with a deck and a hot tub, bathroom and shower, and access to a kitchen for the rare times I create a meal, and that's about it. Having a car is nice, but I don't need anything on the order of the kinds of possessions that have accumulated in this very nice house-dumpster. [Scripting News]

I was raised middle-class to upper-middle-class (in later years as my father progressed). I always wondered how I'd do being much less well off when I lived on my own while I was going to college and getting my grad degree. And the answer has pleasently surprised me; I'm quite happy the way things are, with a two-bedroom apartment and a quite modest amount of stuff.

I do want a house... well, actually what I want is "a yard" to grow a garden in, and a residence not physically attached to another one so nobody can decide that what I really need to do is listen to more rap music. And I suppose a reliable car wouldn't hurt. But other then that, it's pretty cool.

We are, of course, just amazingly rich in this country. You don't need to make a lot to be very content, and that's cool. Enjoy.