That being said, while I am embracing and striving to live a life of minimalism, I realize that I will never be one of those minimalists who lives with less than 100 things. I'm a collector you see. Since learning about the minimalist movement I have made huge strides in deciding what "things" I collected were actually important to me and what collections were items I bought to fill a void, or because society made me believe I should collect them, or because they were pretty and shiny (I do love me some shiny things!).
Shockingly enough, the easiest "collection" to get rid of was my books. I am an avid reader and love the tactile experience of reading a book (although I have been known to use my husband's Kindle from time to time), but over the last year or two I have whittled my collection of over 200 books to less than 15. For me, I realized that although reading is important to me, I did not need to keep every book I read and, more importantly, I did not need to buy NEW books. As a child I spent a good deal of my free time at our local public library and in the last year I have reignited my childhood love for the library. I have learned to be patient and realize I will be on a waiting list for any current books I want to read. If I want to reread a book, I book my ass down to the library and sign it out. Easy peasy.
Today at the Minimalists, they blogged a post about "Letting Go of Your DVD Collection". I was excited to read it. These two guys, Joshua and Ryan, have only been minimalists for about a year and a half but have already made immense and exciting changes to their lives. I won't go into the details, you can hop over to their blog and read about them for yourself if you'd like, but I was pumped to read about how they handled their DVD collection. Remember how I said I had no problem getting rid of my books? DVDs are a completely different story. I've started to go through them and have given away or sold some, but I still have a healthy collection that I need to go through and decide which ones are the ones that make me happy and add value to my life.
I started to read the post and then their second paragraph reached up and smacked me in the face:
"Have you ever thought about why you own all those DVDs? Do you plan to rewatch the same movies three or four times? If so, we’d like to posit a solution: get a life."
I read on, dismay growing in my belly.
"Yes, collecting things you don’t need—thing you don’t get value from—is tantamount to hoarding. What’s worse, watching the same movie over and over and over is, by definition, insane.
Sure, the two of us still watch movies, but we watch new movies, creating new experiences in our lives; we strengthen our relationships by enjoying movies with friends; we grow by talking about those experiences after they happen, developing a better understanding ourselves in the process."
I respect these gentlemen. They decided to change their lives and in less than 2 years, they have accomplished their goal. They are living a life they are proud of and minimalism certainly brings them much happiness. That being said, I was also puzzled and even mildly offended by their last post.
Saying that people who watch movies over and over need to "get a life", or that our choice to re-watch a movie means we're living in the past, trying to reconstruct an old memory instead of creating a new one is, at best, condescending and at worst, insulting.
I'm curious if their belief that re-watching movies means you're living in the past, extends to music, or books, or looking at old photographs. Because really, doesn't popping in your copy of "The Princess Bride" on a rainy Saturday afternoon, snuggling on the couch with your loved one under a soft blanket, a warm bowl of popcorn shared between you, give you the same happy feeling you get when your favourite song comes on the radio? Do you turn the radio off when a familiar song comes on? I guess if you're determined to only make new memories and not let yourself be flooded with old memories, then you do. What about the feeling you get when you pull that beloved book, it's cover worn and bent, it's pages creased and stained, from the book shelf to read "just one more time"? Sure, you know the characters, their faults, their desires. You know what's going to happen to them but it still brings you happiness and a certain type of comfort to visit with them once more.
I feel a little sorry for Ryan and Joshua. Refusing to re-watch movies means they will never experience the excitement of forcing yourself to stay awake until midnight before venturing our to meet your friends at your favourite theater downtown for the midnight screening of Monty Python's Holy Grail. It means they won't be a part of that feeling of camaraderie that develops when a large crowd of people gather together in honor of something they love. They won't witness the wonderful sight of a theater full of grown ups dressed up like knights, and witches, and bunnies with "huge" teeth, all clapping coconut shells together like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Does being a minimalist mean you can't ever live in the past? That you shouldn't relive old memories - the good ones or the bad? I'm not saying that movies are the only important thing in my life, but I do know that revisiting characters in movies that I have grown to love makes me happy.
And for me, that's what living a simple, minimalist life is about. Living a life that makes you happy. Whether that's rewatching a movie over and over again, collecting seashells, or books, or dolls. Figure out what makes you happy, what adds value to your life and just be happy. Personally I love that "Dodgeball" can still make me laugh every single time I watch it. Or that during a stressful afternoon at work I can quote lines from "Evolution" with a coworker until we both get the giggles.
But mostly? I love that my worn copy of "The Princess Bride" sits on my bookshelf as a reminder that true love doesn't happen every day.
