Political feng shui

Some ideas are worth dying for. Others are more worthy of living by. Like, for instance, the thought of political feng shui.

I'm sorry to disappoint those of you who came here in search of ways to decorate your homes, but -

You know what, you might just be the one who needs to read this the most. Carry on.

Political feng shui is the thought that it's a good thing to remove unnecessary, energy stealing things from your life. In fact, you should actively try to get rid of most things in your life, save a few prized possessions. These few possessions, on the other hand, are all the more prized just because of the lack of other things to distract you. Instead of a multitude of distractions - a few, often used, well maintained objects, which when push comes to shove are all you really need in the world.

Take me, for instance. My things are, in no particular order: bike, computer/internet, bed, cell phone.

Nothing fancy, as you can see. But because I've decided that these are the things I need in my life, I'm free to do more things with them.  For one thing, since I'm actively not buying other things, I can go ahead and get more juice into that computer thingy than I could if I went around buying other things. It's simple economics.

I can also go ahead and get more juice out of the things I have - again, because of the lack of other things. There's no need to organize, unclutter or micromanage other things - my things are few and in order. And whatever I feel like I need to do, I can get to it right away.

You may have started to see a pattern here. A general trend of "quality over quantity". This is indeed at the heart of it.

You will of course have to have other objects in your life. Clothes, kitchen utensils and other small things that make the day work. There's no way around that. But this is merely paraphernalia - things in the periphery, necessary but not important in the grand scheme of things. (Which, incidentally, was a thought that kept me strangely calm when I got robbed last year; "I still have everything I need, I'm still fine.") You possess these items; they don't possess you.

Now, the one question you might be having is - what's the politics of this? It's a nice way to get some sort of direction in your monetary/temporal economy, but where's the politics?

It's in the fact that you are now in charge of your money and your time. You know what you're about, you know what you're about to do and you know what you need to do it - since you already have it. You know you don't need more money to buy more stuff, since you already have the stuff you need. You know you don't need to work all day in order to accumulate enough money to live in your ideal state of life, since you are already in it. And you know that when the revolution should come around, you will have your priorities in order.

Being content with life as it is, is a radical political statement. Knowing what life is about is a radical political stance. And being able to get on with life even in the face of radical change - is beyond radical.

It's revolutionary.