The Story of Stuff

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Here is another case where those of you that read our blog for the travel stories will wonder what this post has to do with anything travel related, well, the short answer is that it doesn’t - but it has a lot to do with the changes we made in our personal lives that led to our decision to spend time traveling.

I first ran across The Story of Stuff some time ago and thought that it was just great, taking very complex political, economic, and social issues and presenting an overview that was suitable for many different age groups.  What is this video all about?  Taken from their website:

“From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever”

This is the type of piece that usually creates divides among those that watch it…left v.s. right, liberal v.s. conservative, socialists v.s. capitalists or any other labels that are conveniently used to marginalize differing opinions - how about mainstream from contrarian?  To this end, what I like most about this information is that you can find a whole host of resource materials that were used for the making of the video, including a reading list and a list of NGO’s that are currently involved in many of the issues discussed in the piece.  I love to read about these types of issues to educate myself on what we (yes you) are doing to our planet and ourselves, and appreciate having such a comprehensive reading list as a starting point.

So, what does this have to do with our “travel blog”?

In effect we have chosen to opt-out of what is described as the “materials economy” in the video.   Our decision to sell our stuff and leave the rat race is a statement that we are no longer interested in participating in this linear, unsustainable system in the same way we did before.  Besides having a lot of fun, seeing new places, spending time as a family, and all of the other cool stuff that traveling involves we are also trying to determine how our lives will be shaped in the future by these decisions.

There are issues that the video did not raise that are more important to us than some others depicted in the video.  For example, there is no discussion about the impact this system has on families and communities other than portrayed by the man moving from Work to T.V. to Shopping - but it is our opinion that this “busyness” in our way of life leads to many social ills AND now we can speak from experience of the differences between spending a few minutes a day as a family compared to spending every minute together as a family.  We favor the latter!

When we started our journey we questioned many things about our lives.  We questioned the importance (or sanity) of many things that all of us take for granted, both of aspects that were in our lives as well as those that we not in our lives at the time.  Ultimately the answers to these questions resulted in a complete liquidation of all of our stuff and a desire to permanently change the old relationships we had with a lifestyle that we deemed as unsustainable.  Whether you agree with this or not (or whether you were hoping for a travel story) I think The Story of Stuff has something in its message for all of us and “just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.”

Want to read more from Sean?  He also writes for AffordableCallingCards.net where he blogs about his life as an expat.   Come by both blogs and share a comment!

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