unconsuming judgment
i have a problem with judgmental people. although i’d like to work through this to get some sort of understanding from it, if i’m being perfectly honest with you, it just makes me mad and i almost wish i didn’t publicly announce this experiment of unconsuming.
so far it seems that the overwhelming response to my idea to not buy anything for a year has been one of judgement on the specifics of what i am trying to do. why aren’t i giving up “x” as well? why is “y” considered necessary? why aren’t you taking into account environmental aspects of travel? so and so gave up such and such, why don’t you? what about this loophole/item/idea that i thought of and you didn’t? and so on, and so on...
because i apparently wasn’t clear in my unconsume post (which honestly and unsarcastically is my own fault), let it be known that the point of this exercise is not being deprived or to force myself to live by a strict set of rules for a year. i am simply trying to gain insight into what i value in my life, and how i can grow from that wisdom. the “unconsuming” of specific things is almost irrelevant in that it’s just a means to an end. i care a lot less than everyone else about the specific rules i need to follow, and i’m not interested in justifying my decisions about what i feel is ok to consume and what isn’t to judgemental people.
i didn’t set out on this endeavour to outdo any other minimalists, and i know i’m not the first person to do this. i’m just stoked to be part of a conscious movement away from shallow consumerism, and am definitely clear i am not leading the charge. i’m not stacking myself up against others who are doing or have done similar. their journey is their own, as is mine.
absolutism is a vapid pursuit, and i’ve never to let a single tenet, mantra, word, idea define who i am (or guide my life’s direction). life is change, and my ideas change with it. i’m also too much of a nonconformist type to blindly abide by rules (even if i was the one who made them).
ultimately, i’m accountable to myself and only myself. and at the end of this, i don’t want to look back and think about rules i broke or stuck to, i want to look back and figure some deeper stuff out.
how do other folks deal with this? my latest blog on unconsuming and the judgement that has come from it pjrvs.com/unconsuming-ju…
— paul jarvis (@pjrvsWP) January 5, 2012
you can subscribe to my rss feed (or subscribe via email) or you can share this article facebook or twitter.