Last night I hooked up the stereo. I’ve missed the rich sounds of actual speakers (compared to just an Alexa). I haven’t used my stereo since leaving Yardley. There are entire albums (Michael Kiwanuka and Glass Animals) that I’ve listened to a lot, but not through decent speakers. The apartment in Memphis was supposed to be temporary, after which I was going to get a house, some furniture, and set the stereo up. Temporary turned into long-term temporary. Things stayed in boxes, art didn’t get hung, function trumped form and design. Then I moved back to Pennsylvania – into a fully furnished (perhaps over-furnished) house. Again, things are in boxes, furniture sits in a spare room or the garage, the things I need are accessible, but that’s about it. There wasn’t a great space to put a stereo – wires and all. I didn’t bother with the center speaker (no room). But I did it anyway. While the set up isn’t the best – it sounds so much better.
The stereo, to set it up or not, seems representative of so many of my internal debates (minimalism vs. richness, enjoyment vs. making do, settling in vs. fluid and flexible). I have three speakers (two bookshelf and a center) and a heavy-duty receiver. It is, by no means, elaborate or super high-end – though it’s a few notches better than average. Sometimes, I think about getting better components – and that’s when the frugal, conservative, minimalist me kicks in. I’m trying to reduce the number of “things” I own. I’m trying to live more purposefully… but there’s something to be said for limited extravagance – a “don’t consume much, but consume better” approach to life: buy good coffee (which I don’t), get local produce and quality groceries (organic, non-factory farm), buy decent, environmentally friendly clothes (not fast fashion), etc.
It is both expensive and time consuming to try to live more purposefully. I’d like to educate myself on better products (not tested on animals, not from a company that behaves poorly, not something that’s going to destroy the environment) – but it’s so much easier to stick with the what’s easy or fast or on sale because there are bright little tags on the shelf to let me know that as opposed to reading through the small-print ingredients. We make it very easy to consume without thinking (click through Facebook or Twitter to pass the time, pick up the item next to the register, make the one-click purchase on Amazon).
The other “internal debate” is between being in the moment and holding off for the right moment (or anticipating a better moment). Since the house I’m in isn’t mine, it’s not a permanent solution – much like Memphis. If I were more of a live-in-the-moment type of person, I wouldn’t care about how temporary it is, I’d make the best of it, make it my own. I remember when we owned the house in Yardley, we would put off fixing some things because they were inevitably tied to fixing other things. No sense in fixing the deck if we might enclose the space under it, etc. But in an effort to be efficient, some things never got done or weren’t fully enjoyed – the stereo stayed boxed up in Memphis because I didn’t feel like buying furniture or setting it up properly when I would be moving in a few months.
Setting the stereo up this time was a small step towards being more in the moment (and it only took me a few months to get there). I have no plan for how long I’ll be in this house, but I think while I’m here I want to try to enjoy my time as much as I can and live as purposefully as I can.