Your possessions don’t care about you.

I’m learning more and more about the thoughts behind minimalism, and as I’m growing older I find myself drawn more to it. <br><br>Q: Why do people obsess about material possessions?<br><br>A: Why do people hoard useless items? <br><br>I’ve taken to deleting ideas that I don’t want on my phone, because they don’t help me move forward. I used to keep lots of song ideas, but I decided not to keep any that were ideas for projects that I’m not currently working on, because I need to focus on finishing a project before I start another one. <br><br>I used to think that if I lose something, or delete it, or hide it in a place where I’m less likely to see it, then I’ll forget about it, but the truth is that things don’t forget about me, because they don’t have the capacity for memory. <br><br>I used to get into fights with my sister over a video game controller that I had, and she wanted it, but I didn’t want her to play it because I thought she would damage it because she’s careless. My problem was that I thought that the controller had feelings and didn’t want her to have it. I was protecting it from her, as if it had given her a promise that she had to tread carefully around it, and it was angry at her for breaking that promise. <br><br>I used to let myself go between jobs because I didn’t think I was a person that they can hire. I didn’t have the qualifications they were looking for. I’m too careless, too forgetful, too dumb. I didn’t think I could be a server at a fancy restaurant because I thought the plates were too scared of me to be around. There are teacups in the display case that I don’t want to put my hands on because they look fragile and I’m afraid they’re scared of me and the fragility makes me think they don’t like being around me because they’re afraid of my clumsiness. <br><br>I used to let myself get down about not finishing a job or a project, and not doing it to the best of my ability, because I was trying to protect myself. I let myself be lazy, I let myself avoid physical activity that I knew I needed. I thought that if I went for a run, then I would hurt myself, because I was worried about myself and not doing the thing that I knew I had to do. <br><br>I used to let myself wait at home for someone to knock on the door and give me an opportunity, a magic moment that made everything better. I thought that if I waited long enough, I would see at least a small chance, and I knew that if I took that chance, I would see magic happen, and then everything would be better, and I would finally be able to rest. <br><br>But the truth is that material possessions don’t care about you. If you let yourself get down about something, a shop won’t knock on your door and offer you a chance to depend on it more. <br><br>I used to get sentimental over a muddy pair of shoes, a pair of socks with a hole in them, or a fading shirt, because I thought that the shirt was breaking up with me and I shouldn’t think bad of myself for it. But those things are only things. They don’t have feelings. They aren’t human. They’re just stuff. <br><br>I remember looking at a teacup in a display case at the museum and thinking about the teacup breaking up with the saucer. I thought that they would never be whole again, that I was breaking something that had been whole for centuries. <br><br>But the truth is that the teacup is just a thing. Its feelings are irrelevant. <br><br>I used to get angry at the teacup because it was telling me to be angry. I was angry at the teacup because I thought that I was the one who broke it, but the truth was that it was angry at me for putting the plate down on it. <br><br>I used to get angry at myself for wasting time, and I was letting myself get angry at myself, because I thought that the clock was judging me. I thought that if I watch TV for too long, the television would say things about me that I didn’t want to hear. <br><br>I used to think that I was a bad person for doing things wrong, and that other people who I thought were better than me would judge me for it. But the truth was that if I did something wrong, it didn’t matter, because the world at large didn’t care about me. <br><br>I used to get angry at other people for throwing away a plastic bottle. I was angry at them for wasting something that was important. I thought that the plastic bottle was angry at them for throwing it away, and that it didn’t want to be thrown. <br><br>But the truth is that the plastic bottle doesn’t care about you. It doesn’t care about you throwing it away, or keeping it. It’s just a plastic bottle. It doesn’t have feelings. It doesn’t judge you for throwing it away. If you watch TV for too long, the television doesn’t care about it. If you don’t finish a song that you were working on, the song doesn’t care about you. If you don’t tread carefully around a glass, the glass doesn’t care about you. It’s just a thing. <br><br>I used to think that if I tread carefully, I could avoid hurting something, but the truth is that I can’t help but hurt myself and other things. I’m not perfect. I’m a fragile person. I have my limits and I break easily. But that’s okay. <br><br>It’s okay to break things and be wrong and do things that we don’t think are right. It’s okay to not finish something and to waste time. It’s okay to not be perfect, because we can’t be perfect and we can’t try to be perfect. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes, because the world at large doesn’t care about our mistakes. <br><br>Truly, the world at large does not care about us. We are tiny insignificant people in a world that is so big that we can’t understand it. We are small compared to the universe. The world at large may care about the earth, but it doesn’t care about us. <br><br>It’s okay to let things go. It’s okay to get rid of things. If you have too much stuff, then it’s okay to throw some away. It’s okay to let go of things that you don’t need anymore. You don’t need to have material possessions in your life. You don’t need to obsess over things. <br><br>You don’t need to think that the world is judging you. <br><br>It’s okay to not be perfect. It’s okay to make mistakes. <br><br>It’s okay to throw things away.