Mental Energy: Take? Sell? Store? Give Away? Trash?
“Americans used to be ‘citizens.’ Now we are ‘consumers.”
― Vicki Robin
My wife is upstairs now trying to find the right recipe for getting our “stuff” back to America when we return on the 20th of this month.
We have already sent a number of bags back with friends but now are in those last stages of sorting, pitching, packing and generally trying to do the best job to get most of what we need and some of what we want back to South Dakota. We’ll be leaving a lot behind.
You could look at this problem in one of two ways. Either:
The airlines have cut the number of bags you can check on international flights to one bag per person – that would be four bags for our family. You can purchase more bags if you wish. Or –
We have too much stuff.
Consuelo and I actually like this part of the process of moving. We like the purging that happens, the returning to our senses and to the essentials. We have talked a lot about this move and desire to make our return to the U.S. a modest one.
I have a theory that we are in some way slaves to the things we own. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it is a reality. If I own something, it in some way owns me. It requires my time, my care, and my mental and emotional energy.
Again, this isn’t always a bad thing. Often times the payback is well worth the exchange. Our buying a car here in Istanbul was one of those that was well worth the time, energy and money to own. I only wish now I’d bought it sooner.
But the things we own will make demands on us. They will take our time. Our money. Our emotional energy and our mental focus.
And other things will need to be sacrificed.
“If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.”
― Vicki Robin
As we return to the states, we want to be intentional about being slow to acquire more stuff. We’ll need beds of course and a bit of furniture, but really, we NEED far less than we think.
Most of our neighbors here in our apartment eat as a family seated on a blanket spread out on the living room floor. We call it village style and it is the way Turks have eaten for centuries – like most cultures perhaps.
Consuelo and I were talking last night about all of this and remembered that less than 100 years ago, most Americans had a few pairs of work clothes, one set of “Sunday Best” clothes and little else. It was enough.
Enough.
Enough seems to be a word long lost on the west and yet it would seem to be a pretty defining Biblical principle. I certainly have my weaknesses, those things that I think I need, those purchases I make to meet an emotional need and those products I desire because I think they will make me cool.
But it is not really about the stuff. It’s about the attitude, about the direction and leanings of the heart. It is always a heart issue. I am reminded of a story about John Wesley:
A distraught man frantically rode his horse up to John Wesley, shouting, “Mr. Wesley, Mr. Wesley, something terrible has happened. Your house has burned to the ground!” Weighing the news for a moment, Wesley replied, “No. The Lord’s house burned to the ground. That means one less responsibility for me.”
And so as we return to the states, I want to avoid filling my life with lots of stuff and simultaneously hold less tightly to the stuff I do own.
That way I’ll have more left over to focus on the things that truly matter.
As I have contemplated our return to the states from over four years of expat life in Istanbul, Turkey, I have desired to return with intentionality. Consuelo and I have had many late night conversations about what life will look like, what it could look like and what we would like it to look like.
Turkey has been an amazing experience of growing in faith and in learning to trust God, of learning a new language and to love a new culture, of stepping out of our comfort zone and of making a home here. We will miss our life in Turkey and the many friends – both Turkish and other expats – we have come to love. Turkey’ stain is one that will not go easily – and for this we are grateful.
But in less than three weeks we will return to South Dakota. It is there that we will begin to cobble together a life for ourselves. The dictionary seems to put some emphasis on the hurried nature of the cobbled together project, but I want to focus on the idea that something is being put together from a bunch of various materials. It is the story of my life after all.
My faith is in many ways, cobbled together. I am the sum of over thirty years of interacting and exploring, of reading books and of studying the Bible, of conversations with friends and to listening to speakers, preachers, theologians and more. I am not defined by any one denominational doctrine but am shaped by many. I believe in the Apostle’s Creed and agree with Augustine when he said,
In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.
It is in South Dakota as well where we will begin to cobble together an income for ourselves. My online ventures and language coaching will supply part of our needs, but in the beginning at least, not all of them. I hope that this site might generate at least a little income as well. We’ll probably do some substitute teaching, help local farmers and will work to reduce costs by growing as much of our own food as time and energy allows.
I would also love to be able to cobble together a structure or two for a home office and guest house. I’ve had a dream for sometime to build a straw bale house with as many recycled or handmade items as is possible and hope to be able to explore this dream in the coming years. A small home office will be a great place to ply my skills, master a few new ones and discover the feasibility of using recycled materials in “new construction”.
There are other areas of life as well: our kids education, continued work in Turkey, church life, living strategically, encouraging community and sharing our faith to name a few. This and more is what I mean when I talk about living the cobbled together life.
Cobbled Together 