materialism – Unbounded Life

All that we keep

Posted on November 4, 2009November 4, 2009 by Chris Barclay

This week I’ve been devoting considerable mental bandwidth to wrestling with yet another paradoxical facet of my human nature. On the one side is my desire for simplicity. I did a stint as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka years back, that’s how much I dig the minimalist lifestyle. But this ascetic existence didn’t really […]

Life the Movie

Posted on December 16, 2008December 16, 2008 by Chris Barclay

You’re not who you think you are. This, according to movies like The Matrix, Fight Club, the Bourne Identity, The Truman Show, Lost Highway and many others. Not only are you somebody else, but you are actually living “in a world where nothing is as it seems”, to quote one of the most popular movie […]

Getting & Spending

Posted on December 14, 2008December 17, 2008 by Chris Barclay

Having spent my last 16 or so Christmases in Asia, I don’t feel its commercial impact the way I did in the U.S. I honestly don’t miss it. This year we bought a good-sized potted conifer and put it on a small rug in the den by the fireplace (the one we’ve yet to use). […]