London June 2017 Day 10 – An afternoon in the British Museum

In the morning we went to Belmont Hall in Harrow again for the Open Door Coffee Morning to enjoy tea, homemade scones and great conversation with lovely people. On our way there by (overground) Metropolitan Line tube we could see black smoke going up from Grenfell Tower which had burnt the night before leaving 71 people dead.

In the afternoon the LCM summer school group made an excursion to the British Museum to see items which had to do with the contents of the Bible. Our guide was Clive Anderson, one of the authors of the book “Through the British Museum with the Bible”.

Clive had many impressive stories to tell, but the one which particularly stuck in my mind was that of Livia Drusilla (58 BC – 29 AD), wife of Emperor Augustus and mother, grandmother etc. of other Roman Emperors – and fashion icon of her time, even after her death.

It was interesting to hear that Livia was indirectly mentioned in the Bible, though her name never appears there. Both Apostles Peter (1 Peter 3:3) and Paul (1 Timothy 2:9) are telling Christian women to dress modestly and not to wear plaited (or “broided”) hair. The reason for this was that Livia used to wear a very elaborate hairstyle formed of many plaits, and women of the time were trying to copy this hairstyle. This in itself certainly wouldn’t have been much of an issue in the Christian community, if not Emperor Claudius, her grandson, had elevated Livia to the state of a goddess after her death, so that copying her fashion style could be seen as a form of worship. At this point it became tricky for the Christian women, of course.

To read more about that day in summer school, please visit the LCM blog.

Minimalist in Training – Mental Obstacles

In the last post I mentioned the mental obstacles which make it so difficult for me to become a minimalist. Here I would like to show you some examples.

1 Keepsakes 

One of those (and I have got many, actually) is my first teddy bear which I had as a baby. It used to have ears once, but I gnawed them off. Therefore and because it looks so worn I cannot possibly give it away. Throw it away? Impossible! I could just as well tear my heart out!

2 Items too worn to sell / give away, but too “good” or precious to throw away 

This category applies to my old doll’s pram. It’s just as worn as the teddy bear and almost as old, therefore I don’t know who I could give it to. I would gladly give it to someone who is able to restore it, so it can be used again. However, I couldn’t throw it away, because it is too precious to me.

3 Items unused for years, but which may be needed in the future 

The wine glasses fall into that category. We "inherited" them from my late mother-in-law and we took them with us when we moved, but have never used them. I don’t drink wine, Hermann does occasionally, but doesn’t take these glasses, and we hardly ever have guests to whom we offer wine. Therefore we don’t really need them. However, we may one day, you never know…

As you can see, there is till a long way to go!

Intending To Become A Minimalist

I’m used to having lots of items. Even as a child I was spoiled with material things, though probably compared to today’s middle-class children I would have seemed poor. Anyway, I had more than enough toys and more than enough other items when I grew older. I got married to a man who also owned a lot of things, especially books. When we moved house we needed 130 large boxes to put it all in.

I don’t know how or when it started, but during the past few years all this became more and more of a mental burden to me. It became so severe at times that when I imagined our house being burnt down and everything lost, I didn’t have a sense of loss, but of relief (Not that I really want that, after all there is another family living in the house and I’m sure they wouldn’t share my feelings about such a scenario!) I began to sell / give away items, but there was still so much I could hardly see a difference.

A few days ago I saw a young man on tv who had actually given everything away, except for the 118 most needed / treasured items. While listening to him I felt just one big emotion: ENVY! It was then I decided I had to go through with it. However, this is easier said than done, because of some mental obstacles I have to overcome first – which are:

1. Items you might need one day in the future; very good argument to keep an item which you haven’t used for years and which just collects dust in the cellar.
2. Items which are not good enough anymore to sell them / give them away, but which are still too “good” to be thrown away. We have got lots of them.
3. Keepsakes, photos etc. – you cannot just give or throw them away. We have got lots of them, too, especially as Hermann is a passionate photographer and before photos could easily be stored on hard drives, etc. they were all printed on paper. He has also got posters of one of his previous dogs.

I have started to gather items which I will give to charity and have thrown away others, but I’m also still fighting against my weaker self, so that I will be able to get rid of as many as possible of the items I might need one day, the “too good to throw away” items and the keepsakes (most of them). Next time we move I want it to fit all in about three boxes, not more. Still a long way to go, it seems.