Stuffing the Stuff

Part of my motivation for wanting to bail out to Central America was to experience a culture that is (hopefully) less enthralled with consumerism. Of course, poverty does have a way of forcing this on a person. I think that so often Americans are on the constant "stuff hunt" and that many think they are defined by their stuff. You see it everywhere, "He who dies with the most stuff wins", "The difference between the men and the boys is the size of their toys" etc.

I consider myself a person with less stuff than the average American. I hate shopping, spending money, clutter and frivolous belongings. So, as I started packing I thought it would be a breeze. But as I dug deeper into the closets, the cupboards, the shop, the greenhouse and the guestroom, I started to feel ashamed. We have a lot of crap! Our last two weeks at the house seemed to center around how and where we were going to store the crap, and how to keep the crap from going to crap while we are away. The stuff was running my life.

Oh, I'd like to think I could just get rid of it all, that it is not that important. But the attachment to the stuff is strong. I mean, I NEED this stuff! I need these turtle skulls I collected in Florida...I haven't looked at them in years, but they are SO cool. I need this shop full of tools, what if something breaks? I need a fully stocked kitchen, closets and drawers overflowing with clothes, a huge bookshelf of books, and all these beach treasures we've collected etc etc. So it's been an exhausting two weeks of packing. It is tiring to be held captive by stuff.

I am looking forward to the months ahead with just a small backpack and fanny pack with minimal stuff within. Just the necessities...of course, is a snorkel mask a necessity? I think so.