I don’t think I’ve ever blogged a book review before, but I wanted to do so mainly to be able to share and comment on his main points, particularly since I’m into minimizing right now. I’m also trying to summarize it for Andy so he doesn’t have to read it if he doesn’t want to.
As a quick overview, this book was not exactly what I was expecting. It is partly a commentary on American-style consumerism and partly the story of how he came up with this idea and then spent two years of his life both getting ready and subsequently living out the 100-Thing-Challenge. I expected to see more of the down and dirty, the suffering of his minimalism, and both the good and bad news is that it isn’t there. Good in the sense that this ends up being an achievable and liveable sort of idea. Bad in the sense that it isn’t that dramatic and doesn’t lend itself to great storytelling. The author himself makes reference a few times to the fact that what he did on a daily basis is really not that interesting (which, if you ask me is not a great way to sell your book, however, I also appreciated his honesty). He talks about it in reference to being asked and then turned down for interviews and TV spots:
…basically, my workaday 100-Thing-Challenge lifestyle didn’t fit the formula of eccentricity that shows well on television. That was the same reaction of the producer from ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson, who inquired about doing a “Day in the Life of the 100 Thing Challenge.” He too felt like my life wouldn’t make good TV. I don’t think he could imagine a compelling lead, (“Watch next week as we visit a guy named Dave who often wears the same shirt for two days in a row!”).
I do think it was interesting, from a human perspective, to watch him wrestle with decisions of what to get rid of, and to learn lessons along the way. My favorite purging stories were of him getting rid of some train sets that he had purchased as an adult but recognized as a dream of recapturing childhood and then of him getting rid of a bunch of his wood working tools. I could identify with that struggle and how part of his wanting to keep the tools was the dream of mastery of a skill and imagined sense of accomplishment he would have and found his commentary insightful:
After selling the tools and thinking about my time with them, I came to understand why mastery is not the road to a finish line of contentment. Mastery is a journey without final arrival. This is the response of the best “masters.” For example, those people who, by their exceptional use of tools, we call master artisans are proud of the epithet but are themselves aware that they have reached no state of repose. The master confronts a problem in need of a solution, not through perfection but by skill and creativeness.”
I was sort of disappointed that the lines of 100-Things are fuzzy. It wasn’t really 100-Things. He has a family that includes a wife and 3 little girls. He didn’t count any collective belongings in his 100-things list, they were only personal-use items on that list. So the house, bed, cooking utensils, furniture, hygiene items etc. etc. don’t count. He is up front about that, and reports he received a lot of criticism about it on his blog, although he makes a valid point in that he thought this up for himself, he made the rules for himself and not for anyone else, he’s not telling anyone they “should” do this. Probably the biggest “cheat” (which again he admits) is that he counted his book collection as “1 library” on his list. But in all fairness, I actually think “100 personal items” is still limiting for any of us and is still a “challenge.”
The other thing that sort of surprised me was the mild religious undertone. But you know, after reading it, I don’t see how he could have left it out. He sounds like a pretty religious person and he founded Christian Audiobooks so clearly it is an important part of his life. He never really got preachy (thank goodness) and only made a couple of Bible references. I can live with that.
Probably some of the more interesting parts of the book to me had nothing to do with his challenge but were more related to the connections he made between American consumerism and American entrepreneurialism. Having been both he has some valid points relating the two to each other and looking at why we pursue both so aggressively:
Who is the satisfied person? The person who has it all? The person who has done it all? The person who has gone further than anyone else and gotten more than anyone else? There is no such person. Of course not. We all know that. But try going to the mall and believing that. Try starting up a business that becomes financially successful and believing that. In the heat of the moment it’s not so easy to remember that contentment is an attitudinal choice, not a buyable product.
He also devotes an entire chapter to what he states was the most common of the suspicious reactions he got which plays out in a talk he has with his Dad about the challenge:
“Hey Dave, I’ve figured something out.”“Okay, what is it?”“Well, if everyone did your 100 Thing Challenge no one would buy things anymore and you would be responsible for destroying the world’s economy.”
The author tries to argue against this point in the chapter, and given he is not an economist I think he does a good job. I tend to agree with him, that it actually would not be the downfall of our economy, and in fact, maybe it would make our society and our economy better. Maybe we wouldn’t be in a recession right now if everyone had done this 10 years ago? Maybe people would choose to buy a made-in-America product for the extra money versus the cheaper version because they would appreciate the quality and the lastingness of the object and there would be more jobs here and not overseas. Maybe without all the time spent shopping or consuming (including TV watching) we would have more innovations, more creativity, more giving of ourselves, more time invested in our community. He doesn’t have economic models to support this but it makes sense to me.
In the end, the parts that resonate the most for me are really his personal self-discoveries, as I feel going through the minimizing process my eyes are being opened in a similar way. He makes a point that as humans we have limitations, he’s not saying we shouldn’t dream, but he is suggesting that buying and consuming things won’t get us there:
Somehow I have thought that fancy pens could knock away at my circumstances and shape me into a rough-and-tumble businessman. Or toy trains could refashion my youth. Or gear and adventuring could chip away until a perfectly content and secure soul took form or woodworking tools could manufacture a life of confidence. Maybe my sculpting handiwork could turn me into someone bigger and more competent than I am. Someone who could grasp at things beyond my reach.
One of the best lines of the book, the most true I think, was actually in the middle, as the author is describing some of his joyful but simple days working and spending time with his family. That is when he reveals the not too surprising “naughty secret of the 100-Thing-Challenge” which is also the part that makes it feel possible, and hopeful, as a potential lifestyle choice:
Life is just about the same without an abundance of stuff – shhh, quiet now --- except without all that crap, there’s more room for living life to the fullest.
So, will I do the 100 Thing Challenge? Initially I thought I might, but after reading it all, seeing what an overall struggle it was I’ve decided not to do it. Quite honestly I have too much going on right now to structure another project (getting rid of one thing every day is still a challenge). But I believe in the principle of minimizing and opening up space in my life and will continue to try to do that without hard and fast rules, lists and numbers of objects. It is nice to know, however, that it can be done and that there are personal lessons and rewards that can come from removing ourselves from American consumerism.
