Things
2008 11 19
|
etc
no date
2024 +
2025
entries
home
I was just looking at one of those quotations that advocates the getting rid of stuff as a pathway to happiness. I get it. I get how attachments can be the devil. What puzzles me, rather, what I don't agree with, is the idea that removing all attachment, living in Spartan space, being not overly affected by or attached to any creature, is somehow better for the soul.
I'm a "stuff" kind of person. I like things. I like colour. At the same time that I do, however, like things to be tidy, I also like clutter. Not sloppy clutter, mind you, just piles of things, shelves of them, boxes of them, stacks of books, a desk full of art supplies, a window ledge of coloured glass.
For me, the stuff helps feed the soul. Shapes and colours and patterns and sound and words, they all serve to give me something, not take it away.
I do grok the concept of emptiness; that the emptying of the self allows the true nature of the universe to be accessible, et cetera, but I think it's a mistake to eschew everything. I don't think human beings can be happy in a vacuum; and the concept of total detachment feels like a vacuum to me. It feels unhealthy. Perhaps it's more that the emptying of the self allows you to let back in only those things that are truly worth holding on to.