I'd like to introduce Reuben.

[click to visit my flickr]

We met Reuben when we were visiting Mexico City, and I think he's the coolest. He's a therapist, and some time recently decided to start a public therapy project. Three days a week, he stands on a busy street corner with a dove-shaped sign that says "SMILE--BE HAPPY--HUGS" on one side and "Love and Peace for EVERYONE" on the other and grins at people who walk by. We thought it was such a cool thing to be doing that we went up and talked to him (which was when we got his name and whatnot). He says that a lot of people see his sign or his smile and kind of scowl at him, that so many people--especially in busy places like the Mexico City Zocolo--are in such a rush that they don't take the time to let the therapy work for them. They think he is crazy; I think he is a genius.

I'm off to make a public therapy sign. See you later.

100 thing challenge, pt. 2

So, here's the list of "rules" I've developed for myself so far. A lot of this, honestly, looks just like Guy Named Dave's. What can I say? The man knew what he was doing. Final packing list comes on Wednesday at the latest.

Philosophical Goal: to reduce my need to keep impractical items, and my impulse to acquire new things.
Tangible Goal: to live with only 100 personal items for a year. "Personal items" are things that are entirely or mostly mine and cannot be defined as "absolute essentials."
• I will be honest with myself about what "absolute essentials" are. This list will be small, and fixed. It includes my toothbrush, contact lenses and glasses, and soap. "Absolute essentials" is not synonymous with "personal hygiene items." In short, "absolute essentials" are those items which would impair my bodily well-being if I didn't have access to them on any given day. For example, this category does not include a razor, makeup, or any clothing, although the general category of "clothing" is, in my opinion, essential; if I could go three days without it, it's not essential. It does not include anything that has emotional value.
• I will count some things as groups. In order to be eligible for grouping, the members of that group must be interchangeable. For example, underwear and socks are okay, but not shirts that need to be matched.

My library counts as one item out of necessity (it would be out of control to count them all), but I will sort through the books I've been hanging on to and get rid of those I have actually read all the way through, but haven't re-read. I will allow myself access to the books I already own (my parents have agreed to ship me books throughout the year), but I can only have access to five at a time, while the others should be given away or put back in storage. 

Jewelry will also be included in this category initially, but I will try to be honest with myself about why it is I am still keeping the jewelry I have--because I actually wear it, because it has sentimental value, or just because--and gradually weed that collection out.
• I will not acquire new things, except as replacements for something old or broken. I will think carefully about purchases before I make them. If I get new things, I have to throw something away before I can have/use it.

BUT THERE'S MORE! The real danger I face every time I move somewhere is not even the things I take with me. Worse still are all the things I've left in storage for years and years. So, I'm working on leaving fewer things here. Helping with that is that my parents are redecorating the room I usually leave my things in. So here are the plans for what I'll leave behind:
• I can keep one bin of clothes that still fit, but I won't be taking to Mexico.
• I can keep one bin of clothes that don't fit. If these clothes don't fit when I return in August, I will give them away. If I don't wear them by six months from then, I will give them away.
• I cannot keep any toiletries or cosmetics in storage. If I don't need it for a year, I don't want it ever.
• I can keep one bin of books. Yes: This is going to be hard. Yes: It will be a big bin.
• I can keep one bin of items with emotional value.
• I can keep three bins of craft supplies.
• I can keep two bins of housewares (dishes, bedding, towels, etc).
• I can keep one bin of miscellaneous items/kitsch/decroations.

Okay, so these were awesome goals, until I realized that there was a black hole in my parents' closet where my stuff was stored. The rules above do apply to the things that are in my apartment currently, but if I don't have time to sort everything that is already in storage bins, it's okay. Or rather, I would prefer to put it in storage and spend my time with the people I love instead of looking at things that I'll probably end up throwing out, so I'm not going to be as strict with myself as I might've hoped to be.
I have already done a marvelous job, imho, of putting things in the "get rid of it" pile, however. It's possible that I won't have a lot more than this, even if I'm not trashing the things that were at my parents' house. The biggest thing is the box of junk I kept from high school, and I have a sneaking suspicion I'm not emotionally ready to sort through that box anyway.

100 thing challenge

I think I may have posted about the 100 Thing Challenge on here before, but I hope you'll forgive me for repeating myself. If you haven't heard about it, here's a summary from the Guy Named Dave website:

The goal of the 100 Thing Challenge is to break free from the confining habits of American-style consumerism. A lot people around the world feel "stuck in stuff." They feel like their closets and garages are too full of things that don't really make their lives much better. But how to get unstuck?
Reduce (get rid of some of your stuff)
Refuse (to get more new stuff)
Rejigger (your priorities)
I totally believe that living without abundance of personal possessions for an extended period of time is the first step we ought to take in order to realize that we don't need ever-more stuff. If you do this -- if you will give up your stuff for a while -- I am sure you'll never go back. You'll spend the rest of your life creating a more valuable life, instead of wasting your money and time on stuff. You will be glad. And best of all, the people around you will be blessed by your efforts to prioritize more meaningful pursuits.
Goal: I will live with only 100 personal things for one full year.
Rules: Remember, this is my 100 Thing Challenge. I get to set the rules and decide when a rule can be stretched or outright broken. Basically I'm going by the spirit of the challenge not the letter of the challenge.

My preoccupation with keeping things has become somewhat of a joke among my family members--although one look at my grandmother's house or my mother's "sewing room" proves I come by it honestly. And while I do struggle every day to throw even the least important things away (movie tickets from first dates of ill-fated relationships, receipts from groceries long ago consumed, class notes from courses dropped mid-semester, and the list goes on), I also realize how much having these things hinders my ability to live my life the way I'd like to.

I move a lot. I usually end up moving back to Clemson. And every time I come back to Clemson, I pull all of my things out of the closet and out of the boxes and I look at all those things that I haven't looked at in a long time. I can't throw them away. I usually either put them back in a different box, or they sit on the shelf and I still don't use them. It's pointless. So, I'm going to use this year to force myself to change. This move isn't like moving to Las Cruces. I've got to fly internationally and I've got to move in with a complete family I don't know. So, I'm going to pare down.

I just got my recommended packing list from GM this morning. I'm taking today to continue packing things I know I won't be taking to Mexico. In the remainder of the week I'm going to compare their packing list with the "1ooTC" list I had developed for myself, and figure out what parts of my rules are realistic and where I need to give a little. This weekend I'm going to actually put things into suitcases to see how they fit, and at that point I will be posting another post with my rules and my list, if you're interested.

aww craps

this morning for breakfast, i ate the last of the blueberries i picked this summer in aunt carolyn's yard. they were delicious, but now they are gone.

photography

I discovered two photographers today that I love: Albrecht Tübke and Diane Arbus. Both are "street photographers," meaning their subjects are just every day people, not models. Tübke's are also German, so of course they hold a special place in my heart. Some of my favorite examples: They have such awesome attitudes about them. I don't know if Tübke is just good at spotting attitude or if he poses them (I really hope not but I suspect so, since many have similar postures) but they all look like they think they're the shit.
Of course, this woman actually is:I want to model my entire wardrobe after this photo.

I'm no expert on photography, so all I can do is go with the stuff I read, which cites Arbus as a predecessor of this style. However, Arbus became best known for photographing "outsiders" in the middle of the 1900s:

Her unrelentingly direct photographs of people who live on the edge of societal acceptance, as well as those photographs depicting supposedly "normal" people in a way that sharply outlines the cracks in their public masks, were controversial at the time of their creation and remain so today....
Arbus's pictures are almost invariably confrontational: the subjects look directly at the camera and are sharply rendered, lit by direct flash or other frontal lighting. Her subjects appear to be perfectly willing, if not eager, to reveal themselves and their flaws to her lens.
She said of her pictures, "What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own." And of her subjects who were physically unusual, she said, "Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. [These people] were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats." artphotogallery.org

Alright, make that three. Shortly after I started writing this entry, I checked facebook, and one of the things on my news feed was that Tamera had posted a link to the Wellcome Collection, a series of photos taken of people shortly before and then just after their deaths. Quite different, but also striking.

Tübke photos via http://www.tuebke.info/
Arbus photos via http://www.artphotogallery.org/02/artphotogallery/photographers/diane_arbus_01.html
[discovery via bits and bobbins.]