Spring Cleaning!

To me, Spring Cleaning is the one chance in the year, the one excuse, to take stock of all your “stuff” and decide its’ worth.  By “stuff”, I mean your possessions and everything you have acquired.  This can include clothing, books & magazines, food, furniture, and even habits.  This is the time of year when many people go through this ritual, and decide what stays and what goes.

But to me, Spring Cleaning is much deeper than just throwing away old stuff.  If you really think about it, the possessions you acquire are really telling of who you are as a person.  Take a minute to think about the things you keep.  What is in your fridge?  What is on your bookshelf?  What kind of clothes are in your closet?  What do you have on your computer’s desktop?  What habits do you hold onto?

Spring Cleaning is the time when we can decide what stays and what goes.  It is the time to decide what is important to us.  It is the time to decide who we want to be….the time to decide if the things in our possession are helping us achieve that, or if they are holding us back.

Throwing stuff away can be quite liberating…even stuff that we have enjoyed in the past. I have noticed that throwing stuff away accomplishes a couple things.  First, it simplifies your life.  Being tied to too many things cuts down on your focus exponentially.  Second, getting rid of things releases your identity from it.  Just letting things go opens up the possibilities of the “new”, ie. new life, new attitude, new hobbies, new focus.  It opens up the possibility of reinvention.  You can’t be a committed vegetarian with lunch meat in your fridge, you can’t be chiqe and trendy with a closet full of sweats and tube tops, you can’t be financially independent with a wallet full of maxed out credit cards.

Don’t be afraid to clean your stuff out.  Don’t be afraid to let go of the old, to make way for the new.  You know what you have with the “stuff” you already possess.  You have to make a decision…”Is this stuff helping me be the person I want to be, or is it bonding me to the life I always had”.  I wish you a Happy and Successful Spring Cleaning!

**I would love for you to share a big thing you are getting rid of.  For me?  Other than old clothes, papers, & general stuff, I am letting go of Anger.  I’m not talking about the “someone has hurt my loved one” kind of anger.  I’m talking about the general anger and hate that seems to bubble under the surface.  The kind of anger that is present when I make a little mistake.  The kind of anger when I watch political talk shows.  The kind of anger that makes me critical of others.  That kind of anger is holding me back from having better, deeper connections with God, family, friends, and others.  That anger is holding me back from enjoying the small things in life.  Anyway, Please Comment!

We live in a time and place where it has never been easier to become a Renaissance Man, yet I witness and meet very few.  The internet provides us with all the information and knowledge we could ever need.  As Americans, we have access to knowledge, to the arts and sciences, and to religion which is UNPRECEDENTED in the history of Mankind.  We have the ability to connect to virtually anyone or any social group with a computer.  We can pursue any endeavor we wish.  Yet, we don’t.  Americans rank inexplicably low globally in Math and Science testing.  The arts are virtually non-existent to outsiders, and are among the first things eliminated in budget cuts.  The economy is stagnant.  The gap between social classes is growing.  Poverty, repeat criminals, hunger and homelessness…these continue to be huge social issues.

So I go back to the question; why?  What happened to the Renaissance Man.  Why aren’t there more great thinkers.  Why aren’t more well-rounded individuals thinking and dealing with social issues?  As a collective, why don’t Americans seek to become more cultured, or improve their intellect for the sake of self-improvement?  With all of our advances and easy access to knowledge, arts, and science, why aren’t Renaissance Men the norm.  If there are Renaissance Men, why are they not more prevalent?

This has been on my mind lately.  I’ve thought about many social circumstances that may be involved in this “lack of advance” in our society.  Is is that we, as Americans, have SUCH easy access to all of these things, that we have become lackadaisical?  Are we too inundated with information that we experience overload and exhaustion?  Is it a fundamental problem with our education system in America?  Have ignorance, laziness, and lack of culture been modeled for us? (ie. Jersey Shore, Springer, Repo Games, etc).

I’m sure all of the aformentioned have a hand in the lack of Renaissance Men.  However, the one root cause that I have discovered when analyzing our current society is the unabashed pursuit of money.  I have found that in many instances, the pursuit of money has become paramount in new endeavors, in new inventions, in the choice of career-path.  Think about it…how many of us chose our education path based on how much money we could make in a given field?  In general, it seems as though the pursuit of money is paramount in people’s lives.  Over time it has certainly been ingrained in our culture.  Turn on the TV, read your favorite magazine, look at pop culture from a distance.  At the root of much of it is money.  Our culture is about buying stuff, owning stuff, wanting other people’s stuff, becoming wealthy, not becoming poor.

OK, let me backtrack a little, and preface the next paragraph by saying I believe thoroughly in the capitalist system.  It’s not perfect, but it has allowed the U.S. to achieve it’s status in the world for a reason.  Capitalism drives and allows for innovation and creativity in the marketplace, in science, and in the artworld.  Period.  No other financial or social system is as efficient in doing so.

However, the pursuit of money for the sake of having money is an empty venture.  Money, itself, is vacuous. Certainly, money can enable one to continue becoming a Renaissance Man.  However, money itself does not lead to the self-improvement I am talking about here.

The previous point leads me to my next point.  Why become a Renaissance Man in the first place?  Why seek knowledge and depth in science and art?  What purpose does it serve.  The answer is simple; to live life to its fullest.  I don’t pretend to know the true meaning of life.  However, the best conclusion that I can come up with is that we are (#1) meant to explore and be actively involved in the richness of the human experience, and (#2) use the experiences, talents, and knowledge we have gained to positively impact and shape our fellow man.  In short, when this life is over, it is only our legacy that matters.

So, if this is true, how can one experience the fullness of life God intended without becoming a Renaissance Man?  My concern…why I am writing this….is that I see so much potential and so many opportunities in the United States that are being squandered.  We have EVERY opportunity in this country to positively affect EVERY aspect of life.  Can you imagine the advances we could achieve?  Can you imagine if everyone lived to their potential?  Can you imagine if we all chose our paths based on our interests and talents rather than based on potential earnings?  Imagine if we all used the resources available to us to constantly self-improve, for all of us to use that new found knowledge to start businesses, invent new products and ways of thinking, to pass on our love of art to other generations.  The positive momentum that we could build…………