How I learned to live with little
I used to write a lot of notes on my journey. I had a feeling that this is a unique opportunity to see the world differently than it was during my usual working days. This one came to my mind as I was eating my lunch on a bench by a picturesque fjord. As I was browsing through my last pictures from London, I began to wonder how distant that life appears to me now. And it had to happen that I stumbled across this picture of my typical lunch at work…
…it was rarely that I got out from the office, typically I had my lunch by my desk, which is quite common in London offices…
…and this is my lunch now, as I’m writing this note…
And I found more…
…here is where my scooter used to be parked, in a rented garden behind an old fridge and broken TV…
…now it is always parked beside my tent, under the midnight sun…
…this was a meeting room, the only one with view over the city, where I used to hide from people when I needed to do some work…
…this is where I work now…
…this was me at work…
…and this is me on the road…
Lunches from plastic box, looking at the busy street through window shades that looked like jail bars, working uniform in the form of suit and tie, these are all just examples of what we nowadays call success. But I’m convinced that the world has changed a bit. That only a little bit of openmindness can break us free from the robotic culture of 9to5 offices. That only a little bit of modesty can break us free from the claws of banks, consumption, stress and speed of our lives, that only a little bit of respect towards our own brains can break us free from the demagogy of marketing lead capitalism.
After centuries of wars and uprisings, we have freedom. How do we use it? Most of all, to do shopping. Lots and lots of shopping, we buy much more than we need and more than we can pay for and so we tie ourselves into debts, loans, we get a job that we don’t like, and we worry that things will get more expensive. That’s the way life is considered normal, isn’t it? And that’s what I’m thinking about now, that I can’t imagine going back into such world again. For three months I lived with things that are loaded on a small scooter. It is enough, I don’t know why I would need more. With so few things, I manage to like them all. I will always want to have little. And people will call me “poor”.
Hi Tom, true true…; you are definitely not alone with that sight of “things”.
Remember ? Dagmar and me met you, and of course Mrs.Malina, at “A”, the end of the E-10 . Great and sensible written and photographed- your blog.
Well – the whole story at the end is an philosophical one. So feel I.
I had been so lucky to see -really “SEE”- many countries of this world during
my ‘working-days’- and I can say , these places together with their people made me as I am now. Grateful and respectful, but also ready to defend valuables as family and kids.- This is rather a ‘short’ note; hopefully there
might be some exchange one day. Dagmar and myself “stay tuned” –
May the sun allow you to catch the beautiful places by pixeling it into the Mega’s. Watch out for that HV-cable, leading to the spark-plug 😉
Take care and best technical wishes to Mrs.Malina ::: Dagmar & Klaus.