Thinking Out Loud

Someone sent me an email recently asking a few challenging questions about my 100 Thing Challenge.  There are some good points here, so I thought I’d publish a bit of the email and make a little (?) response:

1. 2 Bibles? If you have a good reason for it, then certainly, but duplication seems anti-thematic at the moment.
2. Speaking of duplications, 2 belts and 2 pairs of dress shoes (black and brown). I would suggest pick a color and eliminate the other.
3. Regular journal and a hiking journal? Why two separate?
4. Can one or the other backpack (work and weekend) handle both jobs?
5. I am assuming that "watch" is in the tools category. I don't know the accuracy you need in a compass, but any Boy Scout will remember how to turn an analog watch into "Where's North?" indicator on a sunny day.

There is a small theme of redundancy in the 100 thing list of stuff I’m planning on keeping.  (In fact, I just remembered that I forgot to add another knife.  A really amazing knife my folks brought back from some mountain village in Europe.  So two knives.)  I guess the question would be, Is there room for redundancy in a concerted effort to reduce, refuse, and rejigger?  As the 100 Thing Challenge gets under way, it is mostly about reducing.  Refusing and rejiggering will come once I’m down to 100 things.  So put another way the question is, Does redundancy and reduction make for contradiction?

Honestly, that is a good question.  I’m not sure I know the answer.  StuckInStuff’s tag line of sorts is “positively cautious about stuff.”  In my writing, I’ve tried to emphasize that some stuff is good.  And the “goodness” of some stuff is not only an attribute of its unique place in my collection of possessions.  That said, clearly I’m also suggesting that abundance is risky.  Too much of a good thing, as they say, is bad.  So just running down the list:

2 Bibles?  Well one was a gift from a kind person after a nice connection.  The other, affectionately called “The Brick” by those familiar with it, is a Bible and Pray Book combo.  That’s the one I most often use for the good old evangelical-style devotion.  Though I suppose using the Book of Common Pray is not a normal “quiet time” practice for evangelicals.  So for now, I think I’ll keep both.  One for sentimental reasons and also cause that one is easier to carry around when needed.  The other for more personal devotional reasons.

Two dress shoes and belts.  It is not a bad suggestion to get rid of one color.  A buddy of mine managed a six-day business trip on one pair of pants recently.  I thought it was kind of gross.  But there probably is room for me to reduce a bit here.  I’ll consider it.

I’m a journal freak.  I love journals.  (Confession: I’ve actually got another active journal I use for sketching woodworking projects.  Sheepish grin.  I was kind of hoping to consider it a “tool”.  My main journal, however, is used for notes, business ideas, web design sketches, etc.  It is the large Moleskine lined journal.  My hiking journal is the small Moleskine, thus taking up little space in a pack.  And I kind of like separating hiking/backpacking from business and other things.  I do use the same pencil, though, for all journals.

Backpacks are about as interesting to me as journals.  As it stands I have an Osprey weekend pack that has these crazy stabilization bars in it.  I think it would be hard to use to tote around laptops and work stuff.  But that’s a valid suggestion.  There might be room for reducing here.

I never was a Boy Scout, though I do have an uncanny knack for directions and rarely need a compass in my outdoor adventures.  But I thought I’d throw it in anyway.  If push came to shove and I’m at 101 things by the end of this month, the compass might have to go.

Well anyway, sorry if this bored anyone.  Just sort of thinking out loud.  Trying to find out for myself why I keep certain things and why other things go.  Hopefully reading through someone else’s thinking on stuff can offer some help as you personally tackle stuff in your life.

Comments

[Tony Pearson]

I have standardized to a single pair of brown shoes and a matching brown belt. It can be done.

[Debbie]

You're so cute! A compass is definitely a tool.

One could also argue that backpacks, journals, and Bibles are tools, but those arguments would be much more controversial.

If you actually use the compass to help you orient, as opposed to, say, as a decorative item only, I think everyone would agree that it's a tool.