Merry Christmas to all. For this Christmas remember:
Make memories, not purchases.
Spread love and joy, not anger and misery.
And to quote one of my favorite films: “Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes!”
Make memories, not purchases
STAR WARS
I believe that can speak for all Gen “X”ers when I say that Star Wars defined our generation. Well, that and MTV. My oldest and one of my fondest memories was when I was three and my mom and dad took me to see “The Empire Strikes Back” at the Duchess Mall (This mall hasn’t even existed for roughly three decades). It was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. They told me it would be grand, spectacular, larger than life. They were right! It was revolutionary. And me, the little boy that I was just ate it right up. So the Star Wars franchise will always be very close to my heart. Even now I am giddy with anticipation for seeing episode 7. I will be seeing it on Monday the 21st. There are a lot of you out there just like me. Most of the millennial generation and even the baby boomers don’t really understand the hype, and it’s possible they never will. So this post is a shout out to all the SW lovers out there, particularly the “X”ers.
Oh, also, carry on the hype. Get your children revved up about SW. Take them to the movies, buy the popcorn, tell them about the empire, the rebellion, the story on Anakin. Maybe we can make it a big part of their lives too.
May the Force be with you.
The Wisdom of Tyler Durden
We may recall the 1999 film “Fight Club”. This film, in my opinion, and to my knowledge, is the only film representation of the values of a Minimalist lifestyle (that is not a documentary of course). The main character (Tyler Durden) had many wise quotes from the film. These are:
“It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything.”
“Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.”
“The liberator who destroys my property is fighting to save my spirit. The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free.”
“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War, No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”
“That world had failed them, because it told them material things were all they’d ever need. It had laid out a life for them instead of letting them choose one for themselves.”
“You are not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.”
“The things you own end up owning you.”
“We’re consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.”