Choice.
In this day and age, we act as if choice is the ultimate in freedom. This makes some sense, of course, when someone else is making your choices for you. When a government decides what job you are allowed to perform, what you will be paid for it, and what goods you may own, choice certainly looks like the only path to freedom.
Push too far in the other direction, however, and you find yourself imprisoned by choice. A person stands, bewildered, in the produce section of an enormous supermarket, with no clue what he wants to eat. "Pears or peaches? Red seedless grapes, green seedless grapes, or black seedless grapes? What's a kumquat and is it good to eat?" A person stands in front of a closet stuffed with clothing, unable to find anything to wear. We have thousands of channels... and "nothing" is on. The highschool student panics; he graduates in five days and has no idea what he is going to do next.
What is the answer to this dilemma? I am starting to hear people talk of the 'necessity' of having the government make these choices for you, in such a way that they will be good for the entire country first, under the assumption that, since you are part of this country, anything good for this country will be good for you. The founders of my country rejected that notion and reversed it. If it is good for you, in a land where you are simply not allowed to come by it through theft or deceit, surely it is good for the country! Does this mindset doom you to the prison of choice? It was not meant to do so.
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams
What does that mean? Are people not allowed to be U.S. citizens unless they are Christians? Are atheists incapable of living in a free society? The actual intent of this statement runs deeper. John Adams was talking about boxes.
Specifically, he was talking about a people who make their own boxes.
What is the value of choice? I submit that it is not standing in the supermarket looking bewildered, but the ability to choose which restraints you will put upon yourself when picking your food. I approach the produce section and pick out only what is on sale, whatever it is. I'll learn how to cook it later. Someone else chooses the few things that they are not allergic to. Someone else is working her way through the alphabet, and today is C, so she picks up collard greens, carrots, and chick peas. Yet another will only buy produce if it has been grown within ten miles of the store location.
Let each of them be convinced in their own mind.
In this blog, I will very likely be giving examples and ideas of boxes that I have chosen, or boxes that I think other people may enjoy. The important thing to remember here is that I would not think of claiming that my boxes are for everybody. I believe that the most important thing is to understand the need for boxes and the freedom that boxes provide, and to enjoy the boxes for the sake of the boxes, rather than to desperately eschew boxes until you have no idea which way to step, and then to accept a situation that forces someone else's boxes upon everyone, for the sake of having some sort of structure in your own life.
Own your boxes.
Love your boxes.
Enjoy learning about the way other people have built theirs.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, July 20, 2015
Shared: Why I Got Rid of My Wardrobe
This intriguing post and the one it's connected to have been going around lately, and I wanted to share it here.
Why I Got Rid of My Wardrobe
This would definitely be a case of "living inside the box". By purposely limiting the type and amount of clothing you have, you are forced to think creatively about what those pieces should be and what you should do with them. I have not followed this system yet.
But, having done five loads of clothing yesterday in a large-capacity machine, and only having three children, perhaps I should consider it.
Why I Got Rid of My Wardrobe
This would definitely be a case of "living inside the box". By purposely limiting the type and amount of clothing you have, you are forced to think creatively about what those pieces should be and what you should do with them. I have not followed this system yet.
But, having done five loads of clothing yesterday in a large-capacity machine, and only having three children, perhaps I should consider it.
Friday, July 17, 2015
A Blog Introduction
I was a child of the 80's. I grew up in a time when boxes were despised. "Think outside the box", our teachers kept telling us. You are unique, like a snowflake. You are special. Celebrate your specialness.
As time went on, I saw the rise of a new type of minimalist architecture and fashion, one that I did not find at all beautiful. It was made of slim curves and white or tan tones, and it was called "Modern". "Modern stair rails were curved, plain lines. Modern chairs looked like alien space pods. Modern clothing was unadorned. I grew up with Star Trek: The Next Generation, so much about its look seemed natural to me, but I was always struck by how little decoration I saw. Nobody seemed to have pretty clothing or ornate picture frames. Blankets looked like tin foil. Along with "modern" came "abstract", which is basically a few colored swirls that are meant to "mean multiple things to multiple people". Now, I do not hate "all things abstract", but I dislike most of it.
As we roared into the 90's, I began to see that "outside the box" did not mean "outside the box" after all. None of my teachers were interested in "outside the box" thoughts, feelings, or stylings that did not fit inside their new little boxes. I began to realize that "outside the box" was not true freedom, but merely a rebellion against all that had gone before. Somehow, strange as it may seem, I attached that feeling to those newer 90's and 00's "McMansions", which showed their creativity and individuality by displaying identical huge arched picture windows above the front door, as if to say, "There! It's not square!" I hated it on sight. It reminded me of a line from the animated show "Batman Begins", from a teenager talking about an extreme form of body art. "I just wanted to express myself as an individual, just like the rest of my friends." The camera pulls away to show that his friends, of slightly different shapes and sizes, have the exact same clothing and body art.
I had to wonder, where did it all go wrong? When did "outside the box" become a far tighter box than "inside"? More people are being diagnosed with ADHD and forms of autism so mild that they didn't need a name in a less rigid society. Is "Aspergers" real? Or is it just how we label the people who, having never been taught the codes of etiquette, failed to magically intuit them on their own? What was the point of being more creative if it took us to a place where fewer people create?
Now the tide is turning. We are starting to create more. People are building their own boxes for themselves. You can find plenty of articles on making a simpler wardrobe, a smaller pantry, food plans, exercise plans, Being given far more choices than ever before, we are setting limits, so that we will have time to do something other than make decisions. Many are actually paying other people simply to make the daily decisions for them!
I don't have an unrealistic view of the past. I can't think of any time in history where I'd rather live. For all the benefits of the old ways, there were plenty of detriments. In this new world, though, where we are increasingly being separated from traditional things and corralled into a tight box of eternal choices (mutually exclusive as that may sound, it's pretty much what is happening), can't we take the best of the old and leave the rest? Is racism designed into a 1950's flowered dress? Is plague indelibly imprinted upon a simple 1700's "Low Tea"? I would say that it most certainly is not. Ironically, in this increasingly tight modern box of "freedom", there are many who would eschew any activity that was ever performed by anybody who did anything they did not like. With this, I disagree.
With this blog, I want to celebrate all of the things that I've been told to forget, and all of the things that are making a resurgence, like food-shopping on a tight budget, "making over" clothing, furniture and decorations with their own purpose and personality, studying author intent rather than engaging in the mental cud-chewing of asking "what the work means to me", and various other forms of thinking inside the box.
As time went on, I saw the rise of a new type of minimalist architecture and fashion, one that I did not find at all beautiful. It was made of slim curves and white or tan tones, and it was called "Modern". "Modern stair rails were curved, plain lines. Modern chairs looked like alien space pods. Modern clothing was unadorned. I grew up with Star Trek: The Next Generation, so much about its look seemed natural to me, but I was always struck by how little decoration I saw. Nobody seemed to have pretty clothing or ornate picture frames. Blankets looked like tin foil. Along with "modern" came "abstract", which is basically a few colored swirls that are meant to "mean multiple things to multiple people". Now, I do not hate "all things abstract", but I dislike most of it.
As we roared into the 90's, I began to see that "outside the box" did not mean "outside the box" after all. None of my teachers were interested in "outside the box" thoughts, feelings, or stylings that did not fit inside their new little boxes. I began to realize that "outside the box" was not true freedom, but merely a rebellion against all that had gone before. Somehow, strange as it may seem, I attached that feeling to those newer 90's and 00's "McMansions", which showed their creativity and individuality by displaying identical huge arched picture windows above the front door, as if to say, "There! It's not square!" I hated it on sight. It reminded me of a line from the animated show "Batman Begins", from a teenager talking about an extreme form of body art. "I just wanted to express myself as an individual, just like the rest of my friends." The camera pulls away to show that his friends, of slightly different shapes and sizes, have the exact same clothing and body art.
I had to wonder, where did it all go wrong? When did "outside the box" become a far tighter box than "inside"? More people are being diagnosed with ADHD and forms of autism so mild that they didn't need a name in a less rigid society. Is "Aspergers" real? Or is it just how we label the people who, having never been taught the codes of etiquette, failed to magically intuit them on their own? What was the point of being more creative if it took us to a place where fewer people create?
Now the tide is turning. We are starting to create more. People are building their own boxes for themselves. You can find plenty of articles on making a simpler wardrobe, a smaller pantry, food plans, exercise plans, Being given far more choices than ever before, we are setting limits, so that we will have time to do something other than make decisions. Many are actually paying other people simply to make the daily decisions for them!
I don't have an unrealistic view of the past. I can't think of any time in history where I'd rather live. For all the benefits of the old ways, there were plenty of detriments. In this new world, though, where we are increasingly being separated from traditional things and corralled into a tight box of eternal choices (mutually exclusive as that may sound, it's pretty much what is happening), can't we take the best of the old and leave the rest? Is racism designed into a 1950's flowered dress? Is plague indelibly imprinted upon a simple 1700's "Low Tea"? I would say that it most certainly is not. Ironically, in this increasingly tight modern box of "freedom", there are many who would eschew any activity that was ever performed by anybody who did anything they did not like. With this, I disagree.
With this blog, I want to celebrate all of the things that I've been told to forget, and all of the things that are making a resurgence, like food-shopping on a tight budget, "making over" clothing, furniture and decorations with their own purpose and personality, studying author intent rather than engaging in the mental cud-chewing of asking "what the work means to me", and various other forms of thinking inside the box.
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