Light

Travel Light
Live Light
Spread the Light
Be the Light

I don't care that those adjectives should really be adverbs, I really enjoy this mantra.
It was on the tag of a bag of yogi tea.

I have been cleaning out the bedroom where my mother has put all of my crap (along with crap that no one else who lives here needs). To clean clutter well you have to be merciless. If you run an actuarial analysis of all the crap and weight the cost of keeping it verses the cost of replacement and the probability that you will actually need that crap, is does seem like a good idea to get rid of it.

Today I sold three paper grocery bags full of books to Half Price Books for $15. It seems like there was a serious net loss over the life of those books. But hey, now I have $15 that I didn't have before and there is more room on the shelfs for the things that are now spilling onto the floor. I also posted many books on Amazon and two have sold. On the upside I think that might be another $15 gain, but I have to go to the store and buy something to ship them in and then I have to go to the post office. Good thing I'm on summer vacation and I have the time to do this.

Also, as I learned from Tim Gunn in the wonderful book Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, that Peggy gave me for my Bday, in order to dress well you need to have a good wardrobe from which to create your outfits. And you can't have a great artillery if your closet is full of crap that doesn't fit you or doesn't suit you. So on my move from California I gave away 2 bags of clothes. When I left Texas I gave away several bags, and then in New York I gave away several bags of clothes. I made a rule that if twice I try to put it on for the day and it doesn't look good it gone. My closet is a lot cleaner, and also I wonder, what was I thinking when I bought and kept that crap. I've really learned what does and doesn't suit me. This pruning has makes it alot easier not to buy stuff that looks like past bad choices and to actually wear closes that are outside of my comfort zone of jeans and a t-shirt.

Again, with the Star section! Today's Religion section (ok, so its technically not the star section but it is more of the Chronicle and human interest) had a piece on the Reverend Billy and his movie What would Jesus Buy. (There was also a story, unrelated but funny, about religious hairdos, with a quote from Mark Twain about how ugly Mormon women are and that to marry more than one of them really is a Christian service. I thought that was bold of the Chronicle to be so cruel about any religious group. :)) There wasn't really anything new about the Reverend, but they did interview an expert in funerals and she said some really sad things about vulnerable people paying more than they could afford for funerals. Legitimate men of the cloth are working with Reverend Billy because they are tired of watching their congregations over extend themselves into debt and misery. Reading stories like this makes me wish that the NeoCons hadn't tainted organized religion. There are religious leaders who really are trying to help people in need and improve their communities. Perhaps political and social tides are turning and those with good intentions will be more successful and more visible in the future.