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10-27-10

Give Til It Hurts | Mission:Kenya

Despite the fact that I don’t own much, I feel com­pelled to give to the orphans who I’ll be vis­it­ing. Even though the only things I’m tak­ing for the whole month will fit into my back­pack, it’ll still be more than what they have over there. So, last night I went through all my clothes and filled up a trash bag.

Read more…

10-26-10

Minimalism in Action

It’s been a lit­tle quiet on this blog because I’ve been writ­ing vig­or­ously on a tem­po­rary blog called Mission:Kenya. Yes, it’s finally time to put my Not Your Aver­age Min­i­mal­ist into action. In 3wks I’m head­ing out to Kenya for 1 month. There, I’ll be using the skills God has forged me with to min­is­ter to churches, orphan­ages, and whole villages.

My main objec­tive is to take my med­ical skills and teach vil­lagers basic things like CPR and first-​​aid since there aren’t any hos­pi­tals that they have imme­di­ate access to. I’ll also be work­ing with a mid­wife and sup­pos­edly help deliver a lot of babies. How many peo­ple am I going to be work­ing with? The num­bers we’ve been told are going to be up in the 5000–6000 peo­ple range.

I’ll be tak­ing a small amount things with me that should all fit into my Osprey Aether 70 pack. More info about my trip and the plan­ning stages will be com­ing. For now, you can visit my blog specif­i­cally set up for the trip.

10-18-10

Nine Quick Tips to Identify Clutter | Zen Habits

I found these ques­tions really help­ful as I peruse my stuff on occas­sion. Some­times we keep things just because we’ve had them for so long, but when you start ask­ing these 9 ques­tions, you real­ize that there’s no point keep­ing those things.

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Hap­pi­ness Project, writes,

As I sifted through our pos­ses­sions, I iden­ti­fied nine ques­tions to ask myself when I was con­fronted with a ques­tion­able object. This list helped me decide what to keep and what to toss, recy­cle, or give away.

Read more…

10-14-10

Minimalism Begets Manliness | The Art of Manliness

One of my cowork­ers sent me an arti­cle writ­ten over at The Art of Man­li­ness blog. Read­ing the arti­cle was a feel-​​good move­ment for me. I’d encour­age every­one to at least browse it over.

Some of the most influ­en­tial men in our col­lec­tive his­tory sub­scribed to a phi­los­o­phy of min­i­mal­ism. The great­est thinkers and doers of our civ­i­liza­tion intu­itively grasped the incred­i­ble ben­e­fits of keep­ing things sim­ple. They quickly rec­og­nized the awe­some power of reduc­tion and used it as an invalu­able tool for the con­struc­tion of their last­ing legacy. Through­out their careers, they empha­sized a sin­gu­lar focus on the essen­tial, not just in the phys­i­cal sense of mate­r­ial pos­ses­sions, but also meta­phys­i­cally as related to mat­ters of the mind and spirit.

Read more:

10-11-10

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Prob­a­bly the most unique high school grad­u­a­tion gift I got was a book writ­ten by  Dr. Seuss called “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”. I’m mov­ing next week, and I’m going through a lot of my stuff and found this book. As I started read­ing it, I fell in love with it. Look­ing from the other side now almost a year after grad­u­at­ing col­lege, I’m con­vinced it was the best present I got. Here’s what it says if anyone’s inter­ested in read­ing the whole thing.

Con­grat­u­la­tions!

Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer your­self any direc­tion you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’ choose to go there.”

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-​​so-​​good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can hap­pen
and fre­quently do
to peo­ple as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to hap­pen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start hap­pen­ing too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be see­ing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wher­ever you fly, you’ll be best of the best.
Wher­ever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, some­times you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
that Bang-​​ups
and Hang-​​ups
can hap­pen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-​​ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleas­ant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump,
you’re not in for much fun.
Un-​​slumping your­self
is not eas­ily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some win­dows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
or right-​​and-​​three-​​quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Sim­ple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,
for a mind-​​maker-​​upper to make up his mind.

You can get so con­fused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wig­gled roads at a break-​​necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most use­less place.
The Wait­ing Place…

…for peo­ple just wait­ing.
Wait­ing for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or wait­ing around for a Yes or No
or wait­ing for their hair to grow.
Every­one is just waiting.

Wait­ing for the fish to bite
or wait­ing for wind to fly a kite
or wait­ing around for Fri­day night
or wait­ing, per­haps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Bet­ter Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Every­one is just waiting.

NO!
That’s not for you!

Some­how you’ll escape
all that wait­ing and stay­ing.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With ban­ner flip-​​flapping,
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for any­thing under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There if fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.
And the mag­i­cal things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-​​est win­ner of all.
Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watch­ing you win on TV.

Except when they don’t.
Because, some­times, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be some­thing
you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance
you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your ene­mies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-​​Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a fright­en­ing creek,
though you arms may get sore
and your sneak­ers may leak.

On and on you will hike.
And I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your prob­lems
what­ever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remem­ber that Life’s
a Great Bal­anc­ing Act.
Just never for­get to be dex­ter­ous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you suc­ceed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ³⁄₄ per­cent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Morde­cai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your moun­tain is wait­ing.
So…get on your way!

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
Ran­dom House, New York