How Much is Enough?

The opposite of poverty is not wealth. It's "enough." "Enough" indicates the condition of wholeness, adequacy, and having one's needs met.

– Wess Stafford, in Christianity Today

Here's my quote about poverty: experiencing genuine unmet need earlier in one's life often results in an attitude that causes a person to amass a lot of "stuff" in an attempt to ward off ever having to experience this privation again. There are often very legitimate triggers for hoarding.

I've known people who were hungry, went without needed clothing, and were penniless during the Great Depression of the 30's. Even though their financial circumstances shifted dramatically later in life, they still tended to accummulated much more "stuff" than they actually needed. Boomers were raised by these folks who went through this decade of destitution. Their attitudes about "stuff" were powerfully shaped by an encounter with gnawing want and have been, to a degree, communicated and transferred to my generation. And we no doubt passed a bit of it along too.

However, may I suggest that we have the freedom to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of these attitudes for us today. When we amass more "stuff" than we need, in an effort to protect ourselves from "want", we are robbing ourselves of living in the present. Here's how:

The thought of keeping things "because I might need them some day" is anchored firmly in the past (reliving the history/memories of not having one's needs met) as well as in the future (fear of not having enough in the coming days, weeks, months or years). It denies a person the opportunity to experience now. Today. Right this minute.

If you have inherited this self-defeating attitude about "stuff", perhaps you'd benefit from setting a timer for 15 minutes and clearing out one of your "stashes". Go through your "stuff" with an eye toward hanging on to only that which will fill your immediate need. That which you really like and enjoy. The rest can be pitched (if it's really junk) or shared with someone who can use your surplus right now. That could be someone you know who enjoys your particular kind of "stuff" or perhaps a charity. Either way, you'll bless someone else and free yourself to live more fully in the present with one stroke.

Here's a resource that you might find helpful. It's a way to recycle your "stuff" and make sure it goes to someone who really wants it:

www.freecycle.org

You sign up to participate in a local group, advertising your still usable "stuff", blessing others. The one rule is that the "stuff" has to be free. (Just make sure you don't "buy" more "stuff" to replace what you just released!)

I know this is an issue for me, and I'm pretty sure it's an issue for quite a few other folks. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many personal organizers making a living helping people excavate themselves out from under their mounds of "stuff". And there wouldn't be lots of books at Barnes and Noble or reality TV shows on this topic.

Let's prepare to enjoy the present more fully. Get ready. Get set. GO!