Anarchy in the UK

Something's been brewing for a while with me. A nagging annoyance with the world. And while I feel like I'm generally positive about things, I've found myself increasingly frustrated by stupid shit like billboards and the need to go to the grocery store almost every other day in order to eat "fresh" foods.

A few months ago I went to an art therapist. I wanted to learn about this mode of therapy since I'm training to be a counselor, but also I hoped to figure out some way to express or understand this frustration. "So what's the problem?" she asked. And I all I could think to say was "advertisements" which made her instinctively check the crazy box on my intake form. Then she asked me to draw a picture of what the word "frustration" would look like to a martian or some shit. And that was it for art therapy.

Since then, I've been able to describe my frustration more effectively. I'm 29, about to be 30, and I've accumulated enough stuff for a lifetime, yet there's always something else to buy, to need. The world is plagued by chronic dissatisfaction, and I can't seem to break free of it. How is that possible when I supposedly have everything I need?

When the student is ready the teacher will come. And for me, it came in a book by Tom Hodgkinson extolling the virtues of an idle life. Idleness is not about leading a slothful life, though that can be a pleasant byproduct; it's about taking full responsibility for every moment and making every moment yours. But how can you be idle if you've got to work to get all of this stuff we're supposed to buy?

Want less. And the stuff that you do want, make it yourself.

So that's what this is all about. Learning to do it myself and dismissing the rest.