I heard a commercial on the radio the other day for a car dealership. Usually, I don’t listen to commercials. I change the station as soon as they start. This one caught my mind wandering though, and managed to sneak in a line. Here’s what I heard the moments before I got to the dial: “We have every car, from entry level to the car that says ‘You’ve arrived!’”

Burning Man is touted as a no-commerce event. It’s also viewed as a hippie/freak oasis miles away from the “default world”. The closer it gets to the event, though, the more grumbling I hear from people who are a little cynical about the ideals, because there is an insane amount of commerce going on.

A while back I was driving through Florida and passed a house in a little town with a falling apart fence. That fence, for some reason, sparked a whole train of interesting thought for me. It’s a little convoluted, but let’s see if I can communicate the train of thought.

The fence was theoretically a privacy fence, but it was old and had lots of missing boards. It provided some lack of sight-line to the yard if you just glanced past it. But if you were actually looking, you could see the whole yard.

From the Burning Man website: “Radical Inclusion: Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.”
Radical inclusion. Everything about Burning Man is radical, to be sure. It starts at the very basics, though, and says anyone may be involved.

I’m often musing on how to create a simpler life that cuts away unnecessary commercialism, improvement, and competition. Things You Don’t Need is a feature I want to bring you regularly as I put together a master list of ways to simplify your life. Cutting out the excess that can easily overtake your life brings more than just simplicity. When you shorten the list of things you think you need, you’ll find you have more money, are in better health, and are treating the environment better, as well. You breathe a little easier, and you find more down-to-earth joy in your day-to-day life. Some items on this list will be challenging, but I invite you to use your imagination and picture yourself a little freer, a little lighter, a little happier, and a little less plugged into the chaos of our culture.