The Simple Life
Sunday morning, I woke up in my bed at home and my first thought of the day was "dang, it's frickin freezing in here". Then, I realized that even though it was the dead of winter, I was still in a heated house, wearing multiple layers of clothing, and covered by two blankets. I wondered how many people out there would probably kill to have any one of those material comforts and suddenly, I felt pretty silly to find myself complaining about the temperature.
I mean, even with the vent in my room covered up, it was about 50 degrees at the lowest. Yes, it's cold, but maybe I should be thankful for what I have, especially compared to the less fortunate out there? At that point I felt like such an ungrateful, spoiled brat.
Later on, I was thinking about what it would be like if I had to cut out certain things that I've grown accustomed to. A few of the things I considered:
1. Cell phone - I've written about this before, but this is one thing that I never had up until about 4-5 years ago, and now I can't imagine life without it. Lately I've been trying more actively to not let it take control of my life, but there was a point when I couldn't go anywhere without bringing it. If I didn't have that thing with me at all times, I think I'd physically panic at what might possibly go wrong or what emergency situation might arise with me cell phone-less. Realistically, that kind of situation almost never comes up, but I can't help but to still have that constant worry in the back of my mind.
2. High-speed Internet - I still remember the first time we finally got my computer hooked up to the dorm network at FAR in freshman year of college, and were amazed by how fast webpages loaded and files transferred. Up until that time, I'd only ever experienced the internet through dialup on AOL, when it took an hour to get one mp3 and when you loaded up a page, you could actually see the individual pictures, buttons, and icons and stuff "filling in" one by one. Now, even the thought of ever going back to dialup makes me cringe.
3. Gillette Mach 3 Turbo - I haven't tried the Schick Quattro at all yet, but I think the Mach 3 Turbo is probably the best that's out there as far as a "close shave" goes. Whenever I used to go home for the weekend and have to use a simple one-blade, moisturizing strip-less razor that doesn't pivot, it always left me feeling so unkempt. Eventually it bothered me so much that I decided to buy another Mach 3 Turbo for Darien, so that I wouldn't have to endure such agony when leaving my comfort zone in Palatine.
4. Mobil 1 Synthetic - I've been changing the engine oil in my cars for a few years now, but only in the last year did I make the switch from "normal" oil to synthetic. The claims I heard were that synthetic makes your engine run smoother, perform better, last longer, and improves gas mileage. Well, after a few change cycles with Mobil 1, I'd say that I've seen none of the above occur. In all fairness, I guess the "last longer" thing remains to be seen and is gonna be hard to ever judge. But anyways, even though the stuff costs a lot more than the regular oil, and doesn't produce any noticeable improvements, I'm still reluctant and even afraid to go back. Why? Because the experts say it's bad to go back. I don't even know why I should listen to them, because these are the same biatches that told me my gas mileage would get better and my engine would run smoother, and that didn't happen.
There's more stuff I could list, both major and minor things, but I don't have time to go through all examples. The point is, all the things above are things that I've lived without in the past, but now that I have them and have gotten used to it, it seems unlikely (or impossible) to ever give them up.
Well, all these things also cost me in some way or another, the most obvious being financially. And I'm starting to wonder whether or not I really need every last thing. I mean, it seems that throughout the years, my needs have only ever gone up, never down. Everything I listed has in some way become a sort of new addiction that needs to be fed, not much different from an addiction to cigarettes or some other drug. If I don't have my cell phone, I really feel like a part of me is missing. If I didn't shave with my Mach 3 Turbo, I can't help but feel like my life is less satisfying than if I did.
Of course, the other side is that these things do legitimately add utility to my life and it wouldn't be fair to say that they're merely addictions that cause a drain on my bank account. It's just that sometimes in this world we live in, where we're surrounded by advertisements telling us what we need, we lose track of the value of simplicity in life. I think all I'm saying is, there comes a point where you need to sit down and seriously evaluate your lifestyle, your habits, and reasonably figure out what you really need and don't need.
For example, I recently decided that I didn't need 600 rollover minutes a month, after noticing that in 1 year on this plan, I had about 5000 rollover minutes accumulated. So I switched to 800 shared minutes on a family plan. It's something little, but I guess you gotta start somewhere.
One statistic I heard recently is, certain societies in the past used to work 47 days out of the year and spend the rest of the year doing whatever they want. When you first hear that, it sounds so crazy and impossible, but then I think about it, and maybe the idea isn't really so farfetched or unattainable, even in today's world. If I cut out all my costs to just my basic, basic needs, like food and shelter, that means all I'm really spending is a fraction of my yearly salary. That in turn means that I technically only need to work a fraction of the year to support my needs for the whole year.
Of course, it also means that during the time that I'm not working, I won't have much money to be spending on hobbies. Which raises the question, would I rather work a small part of the year, and do nothing but sit around and relax for the rest of the time, or work the whole year, but maybe take a couple week's vacation, drive a nicer car, live in a nicer home, etc.? I don't know, but it's something to think about.
