I figure December is a good time to talk about this as holiday season is in full swing. Christmas is all about family, religion, and… presents/shopping. Which are you more excited about? Let’s be honest.
Not to quote a cheesy romantic comedy but, in Leap Year there is this motif that runs throughout the movie that goes.
If your house was on fire and you had 60 seconds, what would you take?
Assuming all the people and pets are out of the house, what would you take? There are three things I would grab: my wallet (including passports), my laptop, and my notebook. Even then, if I lost any of those three I could replace them , just not as easily as others. Fires cannot take my life away because my life is not built on objects. Anyways, here is a video about materialistic objects, minimalism and living the digital nomadic lifestyle.
Thoughts?
If your house was on fire and you had 60 seconds, what would you take?
My postcard from Nadine–if I had one!
I really admire your lifestyle and how many awesome experiences you get to have (and that you choose to share them with us all). I hope that someday I can get to travel and do such interesting things as you have. Hopefully when I graduate in like 5 months I can start on that but I’m not so sure that will happen yet…
And I completely agree with you on the materialistic idea, that life should be about your experiences and not about your things or stuff you have. For one I agree because I feel like I don’t take advantage of my opportunities to experience new and interesting things and my life can feel boring at times because of it, and I know having lots of stuff could never change that. That’s why I hope I can do at least some of what you have done and experience new things and travel and not rely on objects to try to make me happy.
There is one thing that I feel challenges this “nomadic” lifestyle though and that is relationships. Not just romantic ones, but friends, family and every kind. I think traveling or moving so much could make it very difficult to have close relationships. This is one reason I am kind of scared to get out and travel alone, because I would at least want to share my experiences with people I care about and not have a life that feels lonely. Maybe that just means I should travel often as possible but still come back home to friends and family. Or find friends to travel with! I guess even you spend more time home then traveling even though you travel so often!
So many life choices … so little time.
I guess in the case of a fire I would take my computer first cause it has all my files and school stuff! Also probably my wallet and passport and stuff cause I need them to get back home from Canada, and idk what else.. maybe my ps3 cause it would be expensive to replace but meh not much else I need. I don’t really have expensive or nice things, although part of that isn’t by choice cause I’m a broke college student lol.
-Alex
Now you make me feel like a hoarder!! LOL But I definitely need my computer so I can watch your videos! :)
I’m sorry! Didn’t mean to do that :P
On the fire issue – I would grab……I have no idea. I have honestly sat here for two minutes or so and really can’t think of anything that rates the priority list. I quess those items I would need to rebuild my so called life – wallet, insurance info, and I’d have to rip my computer out, since its a desk top. My kayak is outside so that is safe.
I have always tried to buy quality rather than stuff. I have less because of it but it will last. The exception is cloths. I go through cloths too fast to buy the good stuff. With some exceptions. Hiking and kayaking clothing has to be good quality.
When traveling, which I haven’t done for a few years now, I tend to buy some items to remind me of the place or moment. If not a picture or video then a piece of local art, which I carry or ship back to the US. Those, as you say, are the things that mean something.
With that said, I need to clean this place up.
Well its me again. I guess I answered the question in my last entry about what I would take in case of a fire that rates a bit higher – my photos (you know the non-digital ones), and the artifacts I found (legally, sort of) during my travels. And my computer which contains the digital part of things. With that said, I need to back this thing up. So much to do.
Just thought I’d throw that in there.
if my house was on fire and all the living creatures were safe….. Well all my personal documents are kept in a fireproof safe that is good up to a ridiculous temperature. So no need to go for them. My computer would take way more than 60 seconds… same with my drum set…. um….. I think I would make sure I have no spare ammunition just sitting around. I keep the fire arms in the safe, but there may be 1 or 2 stray shells on top of it and I wouldn’t want them to go off from the heat, so I’d grab them I guess. I guess that is the gun safety concerned veteran in me though. Maybe grab a family photo on the way out too. Those are always nice too have. Most of them I have digital back ups of, but there are a few older ones I don’t.
okay here is my little rant about this issue
So everybody has goals and that’s probably healthy and probably what keeps us from becoming something that nobody wants to be a loser. But here in america i think we spend to much worry on the pursuit of material objects and not enough on the pursuit of happiness. One of the most miserable people I know when complaining about all of the problems she had created for herself said “I work three jobs and i still can’t have everything I want.” This lady owns two businesses considers red lobster a lower class resturaunt makes more money than the average person by far but she still has that complaint. And it made me realize that no matter how much you obtain as people we always want more than what we have the problem with making your life goals the pursuit of material things is that you are setting yourself up for an unacheivable goal and this pursuit can cause a lot of casualties in your own life, your own joy.
Another thing I want to say is that here in America and in Canada we live unbelievable luxurious lifes even poor people can afford people to service them something only royalty and nobility had back in older times. Are excessive lifestyles are the reason people in places like Peru are starving. So as world citizens i think that maybe instead of spending money to go to places all around the world we should spend money to help people around the world i’m not saying that you or anyone else is a bad person for spending money on things for themselves and that its any of our personal fault that the system is built the way it is i’m just saying that with all this talk about “the one percent” recently we should start looking at our own lives be thankful everyday for what we have and not what we dont have and then maybe if you have the luxury to give something back
okay im not sure if i went to off subject but this is something ive been thinking a lot about the last few days and your video just inspired me to talk about it and I thought it was relevant. Im sorry if i sound like a holier then thou hypocrite because im just as guilty as eveyone else if not more so but im trying to change and I hope you make more videos like this to try to put your anti materialistic views out there
peace
p.s.
I’d love a postcard lmao
I agree 1000000% – I wish I could travel indefinitely, I just don’t know how it would be financially feasible long term.
As it is, I have a 7 week NZ/AUS trip planned and I’m wondering how I’m not going to run out of $$ when I get back.
Even if I had my mortgage covered from rent, it seems like my account balances would drop fairly quickly without steady income coming in….I don’t blow my $$ on stuff, but I definitely spend more on food consumption than the average person. Especially when I am traveling.