Some Thoughts in a New Year

Another holiday season has come and gone and 2013 has drawn to a close. It’s almost 2 weeks into the new year so I suppose it’s high time I offered up some thoughts about where we’ve come from and where we’re heading. This past holiday season was an interesting one for CT and me and one that caused a lot of personal reflection. It could be because we’re getting older or maybe it’s just our move to the country, but we really began to see just how much the excess in our country has gotten out of hand. We’ve always realized it and it was a big part of our decision to move, but as we traveled to the Northern Virginia area to spend the holidays with family, it became even more apparent. Nevermind the sheer number of people in the area, forget the over-sized houses stacked almost on top of each other, it was the smaller, wasteful things that really got to me. The home that had lights on in the living area 24/7, yet not a single soul was ever seen in the room. The plethora of cars on the road with only one person in the car and traffic headaches to make even the most patient person contemplate road rage. It just felt like the excess was bombarding us from every angle. Now granted, Washington DC and the surrounding suburbs are most definitely the epitome of wastefulness in America (in more ways than one), but this year it seemed to be worse than ever.

If there’s been one thing we’ve learned in the last few months is that there are actually very few things we actually “need” to be comfortable and happy in life. Food and water are obviously given requirements. Depending on your location, water could potentially be free. Food can get pricey, but those costs can be lowered if you grow some of your own and shop smartly. Shelter is also a necessity but how much shelter does a person actually “need”? Our old house was a bit over 1600+ square feet and now we’re in about 1200 square feet and still have space we don’t use. So does one person, or even a couple, “need” to live in a 2500+ square foot house? Transportation in some form is a necessity for most people, but do two people “need” to have more than one or two cars? When one takes the time to evaluate priorities and decide what is necessary in life, it is easy to find many things that we think are necessities are actually luxuries. As we continue to whittle down the luxuries in our life to find the true necessities it becomes even more noticeable that our society has become brainwashed into believing that luxuries are actually necessities. We have less now that we did in our old home and I earn less teaching at this school than I did at my last, but overall we are happier and more comfortable than we have been in many years.

Like I said, maybe it’s just us getting older but when we left the area for our drive home, we couldn’t get out of the city quick enough and back to the peace and quiet of our mountain home. Although we still have a ways to go in weeding out all the luxuries we once thought were necessities, we are well on our way and we couldn’t be happier.