On the cover of the NYT’s SundayReview Graham Hill writes of living with less. A 420 foot studio. Few plates. 10% of the books that he used to.
I get where he is coming from. The public storage industry is enormous – $22 billion dollars. The size of the average American home has more than doubled in the past 60 years. People’s garages are stuffed.
But there is something to be said about balance in life. Perhaps Euripides put it best, “The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.”
The way that I see it some of the things around me, particularly my books, help define who I am. I’m reminded of an article from November 2011, The Subconscious Self by Leah Price. “You are also what you read — or, perhaps, what you own.” At least in part.
Is Graham Hill empty? Are hoarders full? No. But things are inputs into the whole. How these people define themselves and how others define them.