boycotts, continued

darling precious laura,

for the sake of continuity, i'm going to participate in your boycott of capitalization. besides, we're such good friends (besties, as it were!) that we don't need all the formality that comes along with things like capital letters and grammar.

i was thinking about the idea of boycotts and that lead me to thinking about giving things up. yesterday was the first day of lent, you know. (i would've been totally oblivious if it hadn't been for a girl at work informing me of that, by the way.) i can't remember the last time i gave something up for lent or even if i really stuck with my promise for the entirety of one lent ever in my life. anyway, i was thinking about the idea behind lent. (sometimes i think people just do things like this so mechanically, without remembering WHY they're supposed to be doing it in the first place.) besides the whole jesus factor, i think lent is about simplification of life. we all have so much STUFF and we've convinced ourselves that without it, our comfort of living will be substantially diminished. and really, that's just bullshit.

when i was in france, i thought i was going to be so upset to not have my cell phone for 3 months. what was i going to do? how would i survive? well it turned out that the only thing i noticed about not having it was that i needed to start carrying a watch. that was an easy enough solution and after that i hardly noticed that i didn't have a phone. in fact, it was a distinctly freeing feeling. nothing attached to my hip, nothing to ring and disturb people at a movie or in the middle of class. not to mention that i was 100% focused on the company i was with, as opposed to the company i was keeping via satellite.

we all know i'm not what you would call "religious" but i do respect the idea of lent. the buddhists are meant to do it always, the practice of simplification. they do it for the same reason that i mentioned in the last paragraph. they call it detaching from the material world so you can focus inward (which, they also think is the only REAL world). material things are fleeting and they can't bring us all the happiness we're seeking. and lord knows we try anyway. i know i did and that only landed me in one place: a blue chair in a therapist's office.

i think i could go on and on about materialism and detachment and impermanence, but i won't. it's just a subject i think is really interesting. i wish that i lived more by those philosophies than i actually do, because i think they hold a great deal of truth and really would improve my mental state. in therapy i learned to do it a little and the difference was astounding. i would just love to practice it more.

so i'm thinking, i'm not giving anything up for lent. i mean, i'm not catholic, so why would i? however, i think i'll use it for inspiration. i'm not sure where i'm going to start and how i'm going to do it, but i think i'm going to start by evaluating and thusly getting rid of clutter in my life. physically and mentally, what could i honest to goodness do without? quite an interesting experiment this could be.

so, your question today is: if you were going to start simplifying your life, where would you start? (physically or mentally or both)

lots of love,
jenny