Christopher Kenton

I spent the last 3 years downsizing my life and all that it encompasses. A process not so easy as one takes for granted, unless one works less to offload wanted objects, relinquishing them back into the worldly world of possession-owner-possessed. I amuse myself at how my own personal efforts of such relinquishment rode parallel with a decline in emotional attachment to my intimate relationships, all but one, my Father. If anything, fear of loss has increased, but time may have inspired such fear, rather than a disbursement of possessions.

I dedicate this entry toward the noun, what we refer to as, possession. I have since trained myself into a new mind set regarding objects, tangible goods I purchase, give away, lease, borrow, own, or whatever you care to call it.

It became clear to me as I carefully sifted through every possession I had accumulated over the past 7 years of living in San Jose; I could generalize every object I had accumulated into one of two relationships with my own personal desire. Since I adopted this practice, I developed a keen awareness of how to manage objects.

Each and every object a person has in possession ultimately remains in the responsibility of that person until that person passes that responsibility on. Passing responsibility on takes many forms:  giving, selling, donating, exchanging, bartering, lending, parting, recycling, trashing, to name few.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of passing on responsibility for objects remains identifying an appropriate responsible party, a person or place who values such a possession and can gain practical use or benefit from the object. Perhaps this remains why people tend to pack storage and objects to the point of overflowing space with unused and unwanted objects, long since forgotten, abandoned since their last use. The part so easily forgotten with object responsibility has little or no consideration when the object is adopted. Gifts become closet decorations, sporting goods become basement furniture, clothes become attic insulation. When object accumulation continues to outpace object disbursement, lifestyle patterns pay rising consequences at little benefit to the accumulating person.

Therefore:

I refer to an object as possession, I feel no desire to take responsibility for it.

I refer to an object as a belonging, I feel desire to take responsibility for it. It qualifies as a state of Being Longed for, by me.

Each possession compounds itself as a liability, teaming up with its fellow possessions to eat up space wherever it rests, mostly set aside by the responsible person as a convenient place of storage. As space grows for storage, so do special maintenance requirements, consisting of costs, whatever organization invested in this space, and consequently the responsible person must designate a new, open, available space for new, incoming belongings. As the threshold of available space for possessions approach, if the responsible person plans ahead, then plans a strategy where to designate space for the added belongings and potentially overflowing possessions.

The process continues.

If the responsible person neglects to foresee this overflow, more than likely then thoughtlessly reacts by hastily shuffling possessions into a new space without thinking, or perhaps co-mingles possessions with belongings, thereby requiring more time spent each time reaching for a specific belonging, surrounded by possessions and perhaps other unrelated belongings. When I see how cluttered other people live, I only more so appreciate my own standards of living, the impeccable flow, and the quality of life it yields for me.

On a macroscopic level, the there remain far more objects in this world than usable by each person. I have no other than my own eyes and observation of my surrounding world to tell me this.

Perhaps a 3 person household has 4 vehicles on average, but what about the car lots littered with new inventory, each year, both new and used, sitting, waiting to sell, consuming human energy to maintain cleanliness, polished to a shine.

Everyone needs a job, right?

Count the number of toothpastes available at the nearest quick stop gas station, and then count the number of quick stop gas stations within your city limits. Count the number of shampoos at your local drug store, then count the number of drug stores in your state. Count the number of milk containers at your local grocery store, then count the number of grocery stores within your county line. And milk is a perishable, within 30 days, give or take. Every inventory item comes with a shelf life, as assigned by the FDA, an organization funded by the same companies it oversees.

Everyone needs a job, right?

What happens to inventory when it doesn’t sell?

I set out to rid myself of my possessions, and maintained the discipline to assign each possession to an appropriate responsible party. The process took a comfortable 3 years, and lasted from June 2007 to December 2009.

I now maintain both space and objects. I changed my relationships with space and objects. Before I assume responsibility for an object, I first determine if that object qualifies as a belonging for me, or for another person I know. If so, I assume responsibility if for nothing other than to pass the possession along. If not, the possession has no space in my life, and I reject responsibility for the possession.  This makes finding me and giving me gifts nearly impossible. Out of courtesy to my chosen lifestyle, and what remains important to me, do not get me gifts involving objects. Before I assume responsibility for an object, I calculate the value I perceive in that object, the intended span of time of use, the possible value I may obtain for that object when ready to disperse, and then measure it against the effort required for disbursement.

A simple formula that has only guesswork and subjectivity as a basis.

As my space became less consumed by possessions, I could move more freely. As my life became less consumed by possessions I could more freely in life. As I could more freely, I could see how others around me had more enslavement into their possessions than I had envisioned. I could see the patterns of consumption. I could see how the accumulation of objects, regardless of whether a person treated them as belongings or possessions, goes uncontrolled and unmaintained for periods of time. Meanwhile, the process of accumulation continues, and to meet the demand of this process, the matching process of manufacturing and distribution of consumer goods matches pace.

What happens to inventory when it doesn’t sell?

Everyone needs a job, right?

Does our manufacturing and distribution pace now depend on this level of accumulation without maintenance?

Our space that we create in the ground becomes the last stop for possessions not issued to a new appropriate responsible party. The objects I had nice qualities about them. Hand crated, some, carved, painted, I always have an eye for detail and investment of personal sense of accomplishment. Those of you who maintain my objects now, may you enjoy them as I did.

-Christopher Kenton