#material prison

Back when I was 19 I read an interview with the Danish author Suzanne Brogger (see picture) who said - and I am paraphrasing here- : "I don't want to own anything. As soon as you own something, it ties you to a place. Even if it is something small like a vase or an egg piercer, it will become your prison".

After reading this, I went out to buy her books and for that period when I was 19 or 20 years old this modern day Karen Blixen became my guru. Not only was she a free spirit, she was everything I was not: erudite, arrogant, unafraid and a very sexy feminist. And she had lived in Bangkok as a teenager, which made such an impression on me that later that decade I moved there myself.

The art of not owning anything has served me well in the past decades.

I have owned things and inevitably lost them because I had to keep moving if I wanted my life to be interesting and pursue my passion. So I stored my possessions with friends or with the parents of friends and over time lost track of what was where. Some losses can create pangs of pain (such as the pre-Columbian Peruvian pottery vessel or my slides from my NYC 1980s nightlife at the Danceteria, Palladium and Area) but overall I believe in collecting experiences and memories and those are not lost (have to admit I had to dig deep to remember those club names but I can still remember the clothes, the music and the giant video screens)

Now I am in my early fifties and with a family, it has been impossible to stay as lean as in those early years. Families have their own requirements and consequently we have attached ourselves to an assortment of books, art, stuffed animals, board games, jewelry, pottery (of the non Peruvian kind) and there might even be an egg piercer somewhere. Lucky for us we can still keep moving around the world because we by now can afford to hire a shipper or a storage company to look after these material things. (note: much like Karen Blixen who took her china to Africa)

Fast forward to 2011 the internet has made it possible to keep much of what we have near to us without the need of a physical space: our photos, our friends, our letters, our music and even our work, all is now stored in the cloud. The world has never been more accessible.

Now when I feel pangs of regret it is not because of what I have lost or misplaced in the past, but because I see so many young, smart and potentially interesting people with a need for material things. Mortgages, car payments, credit card debts, a panoply of clothing and worthless objects and the willingness to trade in the possibility of an interesting life outside the agreed framework in pursuit of these. My view has not changed since Brogger tucked at my heart strings with her view on life in a material prison.The less you own, the more you live!