Outsides

Posted byGarrick van Buren 2 Comments on Outsides

Everything has a price.

At the last job where I was an employee – my immediate manager was always busy and happy to work long hours. Then, I observed that he didn’t really enjoy spending time with his family. Then and now, I see people commuting 45+ minutes each way, for decades, to live where they want to live. But they’re commuting, and spending more time in an office and on the road then in their dream house with their life partners. Any time I feel a pang of envy, I remind myself, I don’t know what price they’re paying for the thing I’m envious of, but it’s likely much higher than I’m comfortable with.

“Years later, I find out that the person, the one I modeled my creative habits after, was going through a bit of a cocaine addiction at the time.” – Ze Frank

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside. –
The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice versa.

“You are your own problem, and you always will be. Also worth noting: you’re the biggest problem you’ll ever have. Better figure out how to deal with yourself.” – Jason Zabel

2 replies on “Outsides”

  1. The commute thing is a big one for me. My drive time was 70+ minutes for a while till we moved. Today, it is in the ~35 minute range, and I get to read and relax the whole time – on the bus.

  2. Garrick, thanks for all your inspiring, thoughtful posts. (I’m writing this in Typerighter btw!)

    I’ve realized we can quickly become slaves to our ‘stuff.’ And the more stuff we have, the bigger the house we need. And the bigger the house we have, the more likely that big house is going to be a long ways away from where we work. Oh, and if you change jobs, you may be even further away from our big house of stuff. Sadly, you can’t move because you can’t afford to move all that stuff. And even if you could, the affordable house near your work is too small for all your stuff. By the time you get home at night, you’ll probably be too tired to play with your stuff. Best case scenario – you can play with your stuff on the weekends. That’s 2 days out 7. Is your stuff really worth it? Wouldn’t you rather have the freedom of time to experience life outside of work and away from your stuff? This year my wife and I are making an effort to shed our stuff – and the attachement that goes with it. I don’t need 5 guitars, I only need 1. Maybe we weren’t ready to let go until now, since we spent the last 20 years in an accumulation mode. But as we are making a voluntary move this year, to a small house that all our current stuff won’t fit into, we are starting to feel a weight lifted… because our stuff has been weighing us down, limiting our choices, feeling like slaves, limiting our freedom.

    Now if I could only find the time to unload my stuff… oh wait, I gotta go to work. Any wonder I feel trapped?

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