Living a minimalist lifestyle

I was reading Penelope Trunk’s take on minimalism; underneath the sarcasm and outright insults I see some wisdom. Her blog post led me to think that I am the perfect candidate for a minimalist lifestyle:

This is what Penelope said:

Sustainable minimalism requires a few things:

1. A job that does not require a lot of face-to-face contact. (For face-to-face contact you need transportation, clothes, and stuff that makes you fit easily in the flow of a business work day.)

Well, I work as content supplier to several websites based in Canada. The only face-to-face contact I have with clients is a weekly Skype meeting. Otherwise, I work alone every day in the dining table.

2. Kids who are not exposed to a lot of advertising. My kids almost never ask to buy anything because they never see anything to buy. These same kids, living in NYC, asked for something in every window we walked by.

I am single and I don’t have kids. The only kid at home, my niece, is twenty years old. And since we live in a plantation camp high up in the mountains, there are no mall windows to walk by. We only go to the city twice a month for our groceries. Otherwise, the co-op nearby is our source of supplies. Food vendors knock at our doors for fish. Ten minutes ago, a farmer from the mountain came with a basket of bamboo shoots. Every Sunday, there is  a farmer’s market down in Agusan Canyon. 

3. A social circle of people who are minimalists. There is no point in getting rid of everything if you must also get rid of your friends. So if not having stuff interferes with relationships, I don’t see the point.

Perfect. My friends here in the camp include Robert Paluga who is a farmer (he has a big house but mostly he stays in the farm); Franklin who doesn’t even have electricity at home and use firewood for cooking; and Adette who lives alone as well in a minimalist house in Damilag.

So, I am in the right place to live a minimalist lifestyle. My minimalism though is not an ideology or a religion, it is simply one of the choices I made to live a more meaningful life.