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Published: September 17, 2022
I recently finished reading "Goodbye Things" by Fumio Sasaki and through my reading arrived at a new revelation about myself and my minimalist journey. The author came to a stark realization that their bookshelf full of books was a misguided attempt to showcase to others who they were through the books upon the shelves without really remembering or even reading them. This became a wake up moment for me that I was guilty or soon would be guilty of the same based upon my desire to have a personal library in my future tiny house. I had recently written a gemlog entitled "My tiny house aspirations" wherein I mentioned that I would like to have a personal library with floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with books. In my mind I convinced myself that it would only be home to books that deemed worthy of keeping physical copies of but on deeper introspection I realized that I lied to myself and was attempting to show the world my personality thorough the books on the shelf. I also thought deeper about why I want or desire to have so many books to maintain and take care of. In all honesty the number that I would re-read and need physical copies of would only require two bookshelves at most, if even that. When I look at photos of an empty room with a single piece of furniture I feel calm. The emptiness brings peace. This revelation has led me to re-evaluate my tiny house future and begin to re-examine how to design my house for me and not for things I own, this includes designing for a smaller and more minimal space.
Realizing that I was using the bookshelf of books to grant myself some identity to show others was very similar to another identity that I once would have pursued before discovering minimalist living. At one point in the distant past I aspired to have my on personal data center within my home that would allow me to host anything I wanted for my own personal pleasure. At one point during college I was half-way on my way to achieving this. Back in those days docker didn't exist and many servers required to be hosted on individual servers before virtualization came along. Shortly after starting my path down minimalist living I realized that this was an attempt on my part to try to impress the world and anyone who I would invite to visit that I had my own data center in my house. These days I don't like the idea of having to maintain the infrastructure over a long period of time. Virtualization and docker have changed the game and made it much easier; with the exception of needing extreme security I don't host anything personally anymore and make use of a VPS wherein I pay to have access to a server and infrastructure without the cost of having to maintain those things myself. Anything That I do host is accessible only to me locally and not the world and should be sufficient to be hosted upon a raspberry pi. I do desire to be the master of my own domain and network but only for that which I deem essentially necessary to myself.
There was another aspect to having a personal library that I had thought about and I'm taking a moment as I write to reflect on this. Printed and written words have a way of sticking around a lot longer than any other medium but for their resilience they are not completely resistant to censorship or being intentionally lost and destroyed at the distribution and publishing level. There was a personal thought that any books that would be censored would be housed within my library to preserve it for future generations to enjoy while allowing me to also possibly digitize and disseminate the text if the future ever becomes a totalitarian dystopia. Only when in the hands of a private owner can the book actually survive censorship until such time that it able to be republished.
Physical copies are difficult to mass produce in times of censorship and digital copies while much easier present the challenge of a secure method of delivery that won't compromise the identity of the author or security of those to are trying to access the forbidden text. There ia also the risk that those who would censor the text might obtain a copy of the digital text and make a malicious version that when downloaded would expose the location of the person who had downloaded the text. I'm reminded of a scene from the movie "V for Vendetta" in which simple possession of forbidden content results in death and/or torture.
Digital copies of a text not stored in plain-text format is subject to higher rates of corruption, proprietary formats can be subject to obsoletism over time, and their maintenance is much higher than their print counterparts. In the instance of centralized digital delivery as with Amazon Kindle delivery network there is a much higher chance in the ability for content to be removed from possession even in instances where the item was purchased [3][4]. The world needs more and better decentralization networks to help those in totalitarian regimes be able to access and disseminate information. When you retain digital content you need to make sure that there isn't any way for the digital content to be revoked from being accessed by you and that you are the owner of the content after download or purchase.
In this instance scenario, for me I think I have realized that I don't need a massive personal library as long as I can properly maintain personal digital copies and have a small library of that which I deem absolutely essential to my needs. I just need to get away for amazon for things I deem worthy of saving should humanity ever come to a dystopia of hollywood proportions we so often see portrayed.
I love Jay Shafer's first tiny house that was only 89 sq feet in size. This would be what I would aspire to achieve but on a fixed foundation instead of a trailer. The building codes and zoning regulations of this country however while mostly exist for ensuring safety of occupants of a a dwelling, they do not allow for the freedom to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness as defined in the United States' Declaration of Independence. The United States Constitution only grants freedom of speech, press, religion, and right of assembly, it does not guarantee or prop up the pursuit of happiness wherein I or anyone is allowed to live in any manner that they deem fit for their own personal needs and happiness. A guaranteed right to happiness would allow me to build the smallest dwelling that fits my needs while still maintaining a safe structured dwelling that could comply with electrical safety codes since the law would not deny my pursuit of happiness to live in a small structure if it were guaranteed. Not having a personal library means that I'm able to simplify even further my housing needs. I'm getting off track however, this is a topic I'll touch on more in the future now that my anger has abated from a recent Vice news interview, let's get back to some other self-realizations I had after reading "Goodbye Things".
I have begun to re-evaluate the things that I have thought needed to be in my tiny house and find myself asking if it it truly necessary thus re-affirming my essentialist mindset and helping to further allow me to live as small as possible. Nasty weather and climate change aside, a small canvas tent would be a great option if weather and mold weren't such a problem as time passes.
This book has brought me back that beginning mindset that I had misplaced somewhere in my times of reflection on myself. I now find myself wondering if I could even simplify my computing needs by using a raspberry pi as a daily driver for all my computing needs. Especially since I've started coming to the realization that desktop computers are far more superior to laptops and allow for piece of mind. A computer is a tool, and being a tool it shouldn't need be necessary to carry it everywhere. Having a dedicated space for a computer I'm beginning to realize is much better for the mind and allows for disconnecting from technology and only when using a computer in this space does the mind need to be interact with all the things that are made available to us by our computers. A laptop that you lug around without is in danger of being stolen, damaged, or being a source of general stress with wifi connectivity issues.
When I reflect things down to the basic essential needs, I find myself realizing that I only need the following:
It is not required that your meal preparation area share the same dwelling or building as as your sleeping space. Most of the time you can cook outdoors provided the weather allows for it.
If you are looking to improve your minimalist or essentialist mindset I heartily recommend this book. I know I'll be reading it a second time to help the message sink further into my mind.
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[0] Declaration of Independence
[1] First Amendment of the United States Constitution
[3] Amazon Removes Books From Kindle - NPR Interview dated August 2009