It has now been about 10 days since I got back to Japan. I've finally unloaded my suitcase, stashed all the things I bought while on my trip in various places in the house and in while doing so, I came to the realization that a lot of the things in my room, I never really use.
It's kind of an interesting feeling moving from living out of a suitcase/backpack to a room with closets, shelves and more. The only things I needed while traveling were my clothing, maybe a guidebook, something to read, my camera, toiletries, wallet and passport. That was it. Everything I needed to survive on was packed neatly into a suitcase (which was only 1/2 full). I carried a backpack and a small shoulder bag for short day trips. Everything in the bags I carried, I used nearly every everyday and it was amazing how few things I needed to get by on.
I look at my room right now with books, tools, a printer, a map, a closet full of dressy clothing for special occasions and more. The interesting thing about most of my belongings is that I don't use them all that often. They sort of sit in my room collecting dust most of the time, till the point where I might pull it out and use it once in a few months or so; the rest of it all is clutter.
When thinking about my belongings in this manner, I can't seem to understand how our culture is so wrapped up about shopping or going out and buying things. Take a walk in city and look around, what you will see is that nearly all the activities of people out there is for shopping or shopping related (ie. delivery vans, people tending stores, etc). My experiences living out of a suitcase for the past 3 months has been a great eye opening experience when it comes to looking at my belongings. I find it strange that spending both our time and money to buy things is so important, even just for keep's sake when we can easily get by on so much less, leaving us with so much more to do many other things.
My life living out of a suitcase was entirely different-- I didn't have the luxury (that is, if I can still call it one now) of keeping many possessions; I wanted to be unburdened. If there were things that I didn't need any more, like a traveler's guide, I'd be pretty willing to give it away to some other traveler that can make good use of it. Or gave away the cell phone cards or things I didn't need anymore.
Since coming home, I also noticed that having so many belongings made it harder for me to focus on the immediately important things. While traveling, I would only be concerned about making sure I had a place to stay, having my clothes washed once in a while and making up a plan as I went. It was amazing living a life so focused on exploring different countries, finding out what they had to offer, the different ways of life and even just finding simple ways of enjoying myself while on a budget. Everyday, I knew that I wanted to get up and go off somewhere to find something interesting to see or experience. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do (even if it was random wandering) and had everything I needed to do what I wanted.
After getting home and being around my apartment for the past week, my life has been filled with all sorts of distractions. Mainly the internet, computer games, shopping, getting called out for hanging out (not that it's a bad thing) and more. There's just so many things that could aimlessly play with (I actually spent the last few days just playing computer games). I wake up bored, sometimes not knowing what I want to do and just find something in my room to go play around with.
With these thoughts, I postulate that many of the things we do in life is about killing boredom, whether be it games, shopping, eating, watching movies or whatever. It was never often that I had the chance to wakeup with purpose every morning to find something I was really interested in doing. This is something that I want to focus on more and maybe I can start by getting rid of the things that I don't need, while only keeping the things that are important.
All I need to do is choose what is important to me.
3 comments:
Cool, you found the same answer to purpose of human life as I have... The pursuit of happiness.
Life is not a race, it is a dance, every moment counts. The pursuit of happiness is really a difficult occupation. Good luck!
This is why I love purchasing consumables - like food, gasoline, and shampoo since I know I will be able to use them, and once I use them, they go away.
One (rare) regret is that I didn't sell my university textbooks at half of market value after my courses were over. You can't even get rid of them on Craigslist anymore. You can't even use them as firewood.
The only other important things are family and friends.
metroid:
Thanks, it just seems a whole lot easier to do things when I've got a whole less stuff to distract me (and a whole lot easier to clean my room too).
Sacha:
Consumables are pretty convenient that way. Suck with keeping my room clean so having thing that I can use up will probably make life a whole lot easier.
I think you are right about the university books though. The only other time i had to use them was for the entrance exam for grad school in Japan. After that, they've just been sitting in a book case the whole time, all unopened.
Drives home the point about what a library is for eh?
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