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A Little Stuff Can Make You Happy
Rejecting materialism doesn’t guarantee anyone more joy.
A friend of mine kept giving away all of her shit. Furniture. TV. Dishes. Sex toys. A few months later, she’d buy it all back. The cycle did nothing but drain her bank account.
Every year, she announced her purge on Facebook. Finally, people stopped caring. Maybe she wanted attention. Or something else. Like some kind of spiritual enlightenment.
But giving away all your shit doesn’t lead to eternal happiness. Going on a Buddhism retreat doesn’t turn you into Julia Roberts. It just means you’ll own less. My friend skipped a few steps.
That book Eat, Pray, Love was still floating around. She talked about it all the time. Like she thought she’d fly off to Europe. Then Bali. Write a memoir about her trip. Become rich.
There’s this ageless fad. Acquire a lot of shit. Realize shit doesn’t make you happy. Promptly dump said shit off at Good Will. Hop on the next jet to another continent. Make a big deal about it. Oh what fun.
These people all have one thing in common. They had a decent amount of shit in the first place. Some of us never acquire that much. Look at me. Most of my furniture comes from Target. Donating it all wouldn’t make me feel much better or worse. Well…
