The Load
Today I finished the technology part of my great uncluttering exercise.
These are the results: an entire Ford Explorer with the backseat folded down full of junk.
Uncluttering
About a week ago, I reached a tipping point. For those of you who have read Malcolm Gladwell's book by the same name, you should understand. If you haven't, take a look at the previous Wikipedia article, and read the book. It's a quite informative read.
It seems to me that your life is to some degree a reflection of the world around you.
So, since the world around me was hopelessly messy, so was my life. I decided to get rid of stuff, but I hated to throw it away. Why? Because somebody can get some use out of. What better way to pass your, ummm... esoteric stuff along to somebody else? eBay!
Thus starts my eBay frenzy:
And, my newest favorite innovation: the grab bag! I don't want to list a lot of stuff individually. So, large swaths of the items that I no longer want I have bagged up and listed as "grab bags." Buy one and help me out. Please! There are a total of 27 grab bags. I am listing 9 a day for the next 3 days (including today).
Everything must go as I have started to slide down this slippery slope of purging. The act is liberating, but the end result must be sweeter.
Older, No Wiser
It's weird how time works.
There are many intelligent people, and there are many great communicators. Every now and then, you find an extremely intelligent person that also happens to be an exquisite communicator. Albert Einstein once said, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."
That's impressive, and showcases a true gift: the ability to take something that usually is considered so hopelessly complex and make it beautifully simple.
We all know that the passage of time is relative to our perception of it. With each passing year, time seems to go faster and faster, highlighting that cruel adage that life is indeed short. There are those special moments that seem to stretch it out, but on balance, our concept of time and its passage is gauged by the window of our little life. As our life continues, each year seems shorter and shorter, with time flying faster and faster, like a car with no brakes flying down a hill with no terminal velocity: faster, and faster.
So I guess the moral of the story is to take advantage of every moment and every experience that you have, because you never know when it is going to be your last.
Life
We know not how long our lives will be, nor how long those of others around us will be.
The Little Voice
There's a little voice in each of us that tells us the right thing to do. It answers all of our questions and makes all of our decisions simply and easily for us.
Unfortunately, we don't listen to that voice.
Why? Because most of us can't hear it.
Have you ever been at a party or restaurant, or any place where there are many simultaneous conversations going on? So many that it sounds like a drone, and none of them are understandable? Then, out of nowhere, suddenly everyone falls silent at the same time, except for you, usually right when you, loudly to be heard over the din, blurt out something really embarrassing or personal. By some crazy fluke, all but one are temporarily hushed, and that one voice immediately gains everyone's undivided attention.