Cyclokairos

The charge: fraud. The verdict: guilty. But I knew that already – this article only served to confirm. It lists motivations for minimalist living: an aesthetic sense (I like empty spaces and the tidiness it creates – clutter bringing me out in hives, sort of), sustainability (the impact of too much stuff on the environment does concern me), thrift (saving money always feels good), mindfulness (the clutter thing again – those hives, the anxiety too) and experience (I bore easily and perhaps it became something different to try). But coming from a position of financial comfort relative to a great deal of the World’s population, it’s bullshit. “Every form of minimalism is just another form of conspicuous consumption, a way of saying to the world, ‘Look at me! Look at all of the things I have refused to buy, and the incredibly expensive, sparse items I have deemed worthy instead’……..people in real poverty don’t have to worry about what not to buy”, reads a quote from Chelsea Fagan in the article. And it’s not even a case of sparse items with me. Yes, scarcity for some things, but when it comes to books and bikes, abundance abounds. Shelves crammed with books I’ll never read again, yet they remain – they’ve help formed the person I have become, is this why I cling on to them? Plus I like the look of a book-lined shelf – so much for minimalism as an aesthetic. The garage, stuffed to the gills with bike stuff, goes unaddressed. It’s a hobby to maintain and build bikes, but will I ever use all the bits lying about? How often do some of the bikes actually get ridden? If I was true to my word, I would just get rid.

Looking at The Green Bike, and looking at it is all I do, it’s missing something, it seems incomplete, it doesn’t look right. And looking at The Green Bike some more, and looking is all I do, because it’s not getting ridden, it’s missing something, something stopping me from riding it: mudguards. On the type of bikes I ride, mudguards complete the look, and, as I may have mentioned once or twice (or four score and ten times), it rains around here:

More stuff then. Honjo, silver, hammered, 700 x 45.

In considering The Green Bike, its rim brakes, its friction shifting, its mechanical nature, I see my confusion. It’s not minimalism I seek but simplicity. Well that’s the excuse I’m using for having too much stuff – it’s simple stuff, which in my mixed up logic is better than too much complex stuff.