What is reasonable-ism? If you are a Parks and Rec fan like me, it's a recently invented religious organization (think Scientology), whose founder sought to write a few self help books for middle managers to organize their office spaces and ended up creating an enormously popular (and crazy) cult around the 28-foot- tall alien lizard god Zorp. The cult's name was chosen because if people criticize them it seems like they are attacking something reasonable. Which is reasonable.
Recently, however, I have started to think of reasonable-ism in slightly different terms. I don't particularly care whether Zorp will come burn my face off during some apocalyptic end of days, but I am attracted to minimalism, so I am using reasonable-ism as a way to approach minimalism without getting cultish and sanctimonious about it.
Rather than think about what is the smallest amount of stuff I need, I'm more curious about what is a reasonable amount of stuff. I love my hobbies. But rather than thinking about eliminating them, I'm trying to think about what is a reasonable amount of time to devote to each. Take this blog, for instance. I would love to update it every day. But between all of my other writing projects (dissertation, novel, short story collection, grants, job applications), that's probably not feasible. So, since I don't want the blog to fall into disrepair again, I'm going to aim for 1 to 2 posts per week. We'll see if that's reasonable.
Recently, however, I have started to think of reasonable-ism in slightly different terms. I don't particularly care whether Zorp will come burn my face off during some apocalyptic end of days, but I am attracted to minimalism, so I am using reasonable-ism as a way to approach minimalism without getting cultish and sanctimonious about it.
Rather than think about what is the smallest amount of stuff I need, I'm more curious about what is a reasonable amount of stuff. I love my hobbies. But rather than thinking about eliminating them, I'm trying to think about what is a reasonable amount of time to devote to each. Take this blog, for instance. I would love to update it every day. But between all of my other writing projects (dissertation, novel, short story collection, grants, job applications), that's probably not feasible. So, since I don't want the blog to fall into disrepair again, I'm going to aim for 1 to 2 posts per week. We'll see if that's reasonable.
I think that sounds very reasonable!
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