172: If anything, I'm a maximalist

When many people enter my apartment for the first time say something about it being minimalist. I feel like I have a lot of stuff because I have many things I don't need, mean to get rid of, but haven't. Apparently, my amount of many things is well below most people's thresholds.

I also bristle at people labeling me, so whatever the label, I usually don't like it.

But the label minimalist especially bothers me. I think it's backward.

I've tried a lot of things in life -- sports, art, science, entrepreneurship, business, religion, reading, writing, travel, meditation, yoga, dancing, clubbing, girls, solitude, and more than I can list.

Through it all, certain things always resurface and come back as the most valuable and meaningful, bringing the most joy, satisfaction, happiness, and what I want most in life.

Relationships with family, with friends I have emotional, intellectual, and when appropriate physical intimacy, where we've allowed ourselves to open up and be vulnerable, the beauty of nature in sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, responsibility for how my actions affect others, stewardship of the resources we share, contributing to something greater than myself, leading to a sense of oneness, teamwork, duty, honor, learning, striving to make myself and my world in some way better tomorrow than today, harmony, service, freedom.

None of these things require material possessions. On the contrary, stuff gets in the way of many of these things.

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