Since leaving the seminary last August, I’ve been temporarily staying with Ashton in West Orange, NJ. I thought I might be here a month at the most. I’ve now been here 10 months, but tomorrow I’m moving again. I never expected that I would be living 10 months out of a few boxes with all my stuff, my books, in storage in two different states. Four more months in yet another location, and I will have belongings in three different locations – I’m being spread way too thin!
The family that owns the house in which Ashton has lived for the past four years or so and where I’ve stayed are moving on, and by necessity so are we. I have to decide by this evening were I will be living for the next four months until the apartment above the rectory at St. Paul’s finally becomes available. Ostensibly, I will be living in Brooklyn more permanently and will be able to bring all my stuff to one location.
I don’t know what I will find when I begin unpacking! I’ve said for a long time that I want to live simply, and for the most part I have. Yet, things accumulate and not wanting to be wasteful I keep moving all the stuff I’ve accumulated. These past 10 months have reinforced in me the understanding that I do not need very much. I just don’t. I don’t need to buy into American consumerism or materialism – but it is hard not to.
Tomorrow, everything changes once again. I’m tired of everything changing again and again. I know that change is the watchword for the American social zeit geist, but there does come a point where even the most adept at change realize a diminishing return, particularly concerning relationships.
I’m just tired of yet another something.