If you were to ask one of the half a dozen or so people I talk to on a regular basis, you'd know that I've been trying to live more simply latey. It started sometime before christmas when I saw a woman in target freaking out about gifts she could or could not find... I'm not even sure which. The commercialization of the holiday hit me hard, and my anti-consumerism thoughts have been getting stronger ever since. Stuff, I'm realizing, isn't important. It doesn't make you better, it just gives you more things to worry about and more things to fret that you don't own yet.
It's working into many parts of my life. This morning, CJ pointed out a toy thrown into the woods down the street and asked why someone did that. I offered a brief explination, then suggested he never do anything like that himself. Then I laid it on him... "better yet, before you even buy something like that, decide if you really need it, and if you don't, skip it. If a few hundred people make that same choice, the toy company will make fewer of them to be thrown in the woods when the next *must have* toy comes along." Heavy for a 5 year old, but he can hack it.
Anyway, why the picture of Gump? I often wish I enjoyed playing basketball or running cross country, it would have been much simpler and easier than playing hockey like I did. Much less of a burden on my parents and much easier to do when ever or where ever I wanted to. I went running yesterday, and everything about it was great: made me wish I was running the marathon again this year. Good runs like that make me feel guilty for spending money and resources on my relatively new hobby of cycling, but I can justify it because I ride to work often enough. Yeah, I know I have more bikes than I need, but I'm working on getting that down. Keep your eyes on ebay if you are in the market for a coulpe of carbon wonder bikes from a well known american mfgr.
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