Minimalism: a documentary about the important things.

Apr 8, 2017 | 2 comments

Jeg synes desværre at ordet “minimalisme” er blevet tillagt en lidt negativ klang. Fordi det, som så mange andre ting i vores forbrugeriske samfund, er blevet en stilart, der handler om at tilegne sig ting, der virker eller ser minimalistiske ud. Men mange glemmer måske lidt, at minimalisme ikke kun er en stilart. Det er også en måde at leve sit liv på. Det den værdi jeg personligt lægger i det. Men det er klart, at jeg også er til minimalisme i sin nuværende, mere trendy forstand; monokrome farver, simplicitet… jeg ville lyve hvis jeg sagde, at jeg ikke var tiltrukket af disse ting også. Men der er altså stof til eftertanke her.

I går havde min kæreste og jeg lyst til at se noget rigtig godt “feel-good” TV. Vi faldt over dokumentaren “Minimalism: a documentary about the important things” på Netflix, og den blev sat på med det samme. Og den sidder stadig dybt i mig i dag, dagen efter. For pokker hvor gjorde den et stort indtryk på mig! Minimalisme ligger dybt i mig (og min kæreste også) allerede, det er klart. Jeg har i flere år forsøgt at simplificere mit liv, og som de også siger i filmen; det er en proces, man lærer hele tiden noget, tager valg og fravalg, laver fejl og forbedrer sig. Det sker ikke over en nat. Jeg vil i dette indlæg liste de emner op, som filmen berører, som gjorde størst indtryk på mig. Og så vil jeg naturligvis opfordre jer derude, til at se den selv! Den er virkelig en øjenåbner, og den har givet mig fornyet inspiration.

Filmen følger en række forskellige personer, som har lagt deres liv om, og gjort det mere simpelt. Der er nemlig mange måder at forfølge dette på, og der er også forskellige grunde til, at de personer der medvirker i filmen, har valgt at trække sig lidt fra vores traditionelle, forbrugssamfund. Vi møder bl.a. Jay Austin, som er designer for et koncept der hedder Tiny House Designs. Navnet på konceptet siger næsten sig selv, og de forsøger at fremstille bæredygtige, små hjem, som er funktionelle på en super kreativ og inspirerende måde. Altså man bliver overrasket over, hvor funktionel en træhytte på måske 30 kvm2 kan være! Jay Austin udtaler i sit interview, at én af grundene til vi forbruger så meget som vi gør er fordi vi arbejder så meget som vi gør. Vi har brug for noget der fortæller os, at det er dét værd, at arbejde så meget som vi gør. Så derfor belønner vi os selv med materialistiske goder. Men der er jo for pokker andet i livet end penge, regninger og arbejde!

Jeg tror denne udtalelse kan være provokerende for nogle mennesker. Mange mennesker føler måske, at man vil frarøve dem noget, så snart man begynder at tale om, at vi alle burde forbruge mindre. Et eller andet sted forstår man jo godt, at man gerne vil belønne sig selv sit hårde arbejde, ikke? Jeg kender ihvertfald følelsen.

(anmeldelsen fortsætter under billedet)

/ The word ”minimalism” has (sadly) become more of a trendy word and a style, than an actual act or way of living. It’s more about buying stuff, that looks minimalistic somehow. But many people seem to forget, that this has very little to do with minimalism. And the value I personally put into the word, is the act of minimalism; cutting away excess clutter from your life, that doesn’t give you real joy. But, with that being said – I would be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to the style minimalism. The monochromatic color scales, simplicity… but there are things to discover.

Yesterday my boyfriend and I really felt like watching some kind of ”feel-good” conctent on the TV, like so many other friday nights. We stumbled upon the documentary ”Minimalism: a documenatry about the important things” on Netflix, and of course we ended up watching it. And today, I still feel the impressions it gave me all the way to my core. Minimalism has become such a natural way of living for me in general. For years I’ve been seeking to make my life more simple, and like they say in the movie: it’s a proces, and it wont happen over night. You learn something all the time, you make good choices, bad choices and you improve constantly. In this post, I want to share the things from the movie, that made the biggest impressions on me. It’s going to be a game-changer for me (I feel that already!) and I really hope you’ll do yourself the favor of watching it as well.

In the movie we meet several people, who have changed their lives, making it more simple. Because as you will learn, there are many different ways to pursue this way of life and there are different reasons for why the people we meet in the movie, has chosen to move away from the more traditional American dream and consumerism. We meet Jay Austin, who is a designer for Tiny House Designs. The concept pretty much speaks for itself, and what they do is to make small houses that are functional in a very creative an inspiring way, even though it may only be around 30 squaremeters! Jay Austin says in his interview, that he thinks one of the reasons why we consume so much as we do, is because we work so much. We need something that rewards us, and that tells us, that all that hard work and long days are worth it. So we treat ourselves with materialistic things. But there are other things to life than money, bills and work!

I think this statement can be kind of provocative to some people. Many people feel that as soon as you try to convince them to consume less, you want to take something away from them. And somehow, it makes sense that we want to reward ourselves for our hard work – right?

(the post continues after the picture)

Vi møder også AJ Leon, som er tidligere brooker på Wall Street. Han var en stor kanon, en vindertype, som træf sit valg af uddannelse på baggrund af hvilke jobs der statistisk set, ville skaffe ham den højeste indtjening. Allerede i midt 20’erne stod han til, at blive forfremmet til junior partner hos den virksomhed han var ansat i. Da han forlod chefens kontor den dag, og lukkede døren bag sig ind til sit eget, brød han fuldstændig sammen. For pludselig følte han sig fanget; “hvis jeg bliver ham fyren, der tjener så mange penge hver måned.. så slipper jeg aldrig væk igen.” Han ville blive ham fyren resten af sit liv. Ham fyren, hvis vigtigste mål her i livet var, at bevare sin enorme indtægt. Så han tog elevatoren ned, og sagde farvel til Wall Street og hej til et helt nyt liv, hvor alting ikke er så forudbestemt, og hvor der er fokus på de vigtige ting i livet, som f.eks. nærvær.

Mødet med AJ Leon var for mig filmens højdepunkt, og med tårerne trillende ned af kinderne følte jeg virkelig en kæmpe lettelse over, at der findes mennesker i verden, som har samme livssyn som mig. Som ikke ser sig selv blive slidt op af et eller andet job, som man i bund og grund slet ikke værdsætter. Som finder ud af, at det nok i virkeligheden aldrig var noget for dig, at stræbe efter at blive et karriere menneske. Selvom vores historier og status rent karrieremæssigt er vidt forskellige, så kunne jeg bare genkende så mange af de følelser han beskriver i dokumentaren. Hvordan han følte hans frihed forsvandt mellem fingrene på ham, og den der kvælende fornemmelse af, at man ikke kan slippe væk.

Filmen demonstrerer hvordan vores overforbrug ikke gør os lykkeligere. Den her tankegang om, at lykken venter lige rundt om hjørnet, hvis bare jeg får den dér næste ting. Vi tillægger de ting vi køber en social værdi, og denne sociale værdi presser os og gør os ulykkeligere. Det er videnskabligt bevist, at jo højere forbrug man har, jo mere ulykkelig er man. Ingen mindre en Jim Carrey udtaler, at han ville ønske at alle kunne opleve, hvordan det faktisk er at være rig og berømt, for så ville alle finde ud af, at det ikke er dét værd at kunne købe alle de ting man går og tror vil gøre én mere lykkelig. Jo vidst giver det mere frihed at have penge – men er det de materialistiske goder der skal definere denne frihed? Jeg tror godt vi selv kender svaret.

(anmeldelsen fortsætter under billedet)

/ We also meet AJ Leon, who is a former brooker on Wall Street. He was mr. Hot shots, a winner-type who made his educational choices from looking at which jobs that – statistically – would earn him most money. Already in his 20s he was about to become junior-partner in the company he worked for. And when he left his boss’ office that day, and closed the door behind him in his own office he broke down. Because suddenly he felt trapped: ”if I do this, I’m gonna become that guy for the rest of my life… I’ll never get out of it.” The guy who’s most important goal in life is, to earn a lot of money. So he took the elevator down, and said goddbye to Wall Street – and hello to his very own life, where things may not be so predictable.

Hearing what AJ Leon had to say really touched my heart, and I was just weaping with relief that there are other people in this world, who share my life visions. Who don’t want to be caught up in a job, that you don’t really appreciate at that doesn’t really do anything for you. People who found out, that it was probably never ment for you! Even though our status and carreer situations may be very different, I just recognized so many of the feelings he describes. Especially the feeling of your freedom being taken away from you, that strangling feeling of not being able to get away.

The movie also seeks to prove how our consumption dosn’t make us one bit happier. You know, thinking that “if I just get this next thing, my happiness and my life will be complete”. It is actually scientifically proven, that consuming a lot of excess things makes us unhappy. No other than Jim Carrey has even said, that he wishes that everyone in the world could try to be rich and famous for a while, because then we would all discover that it’s not worth it. The good old ”money can’t buy us happiness”, and I think we all know deep down, that being able to buy whatever we want isn’t equal to being free.

(continues after the picture)

Filmen kommer naturligvis også ind på vores tøjforbrug, som jo om noget virkelig er blevet den store synder. Engang var der måske 2-4 sæsoner på et år, og det er de rammer vores bedstemødre og mødre typisk er vokset op med. Men i dag er disse sæsoner stort set udvisket. I dag findes der helt op til 52 (!) sæsoner på et år. Det er jo fuldstændig vanvittigt! Ligeledes kommer filmen også ind på det faktum, at selvom vi på verdensplan har fået flere og flere penge mellem hænderne, så er priserne på tøjet styrtdykket. Vores respekt for det er nærmest ikke-eksisterende. Også her tillægges der en social værdi (vi skal helst have de ting, som er allermest trendy), og når denne sociale værdi ikke længere er til stede, ja så smider vi tøjet ud uden at blinke.

FIlmen er god, fordi den stort set hele vejen i gennem ikke bebrejder os som forbrugere. Den respekterer, at de ting du har i dit liv er noget, som på én eller anden måde skaber en værdi for dig. Hvis du har en stor samling af bøger, så skal du naturligvis ikke skille dig af med dem, hvis du virkelig elsker at læse i dem, bladre i den, dufte til dem… hvis du virkelig har en passion for bøger. Men den fremhæver det faktum, at vi glemmer at overveje, om de ting vi fylder vores liv med rent faktisk giver os denne værdi. I langt de fleste tilfælde gør de jo desværre ikke. Og igen, så er jeg vild med, at den forsøger at gøre lidt op med de traditionelle rammer for, hvordan vi skal leve vores liv. Og at lykken ikke (nødvendigvis) er at stile efter det bedste job, det største hus, den største bil etc. Den har virkelig givet mig noget at tænke over.

Jeg synes at I alle burde gøre jer selv en tjeneste og se den! Hvis du har Netflix kan du finde den HER.

Of course the movie also covers our consumption of clothing which is really at a status quo right now. Once we made clothes for 2-4 seasons a year, and that’s what our grandmothers and mothers were brought up with. But today there are not really any seasons, there can be up to 52 in a whole year! That’s just insane. Also it covers the fact that eventhough we have gotten more wealthy on a global scale, the prices for our garments have just been dropping with full speed. We have no respect for the clothes anymore. The clothes (and a lot of other materialistic things) are being given some sort of social value, and when this social value is no longer there (if the clothes aren’t on trend anymore for example) – we throw it away without thinking twice.

The movie is so great because it doesn’t blame us as consumers. It respects us and the fact that we want things in our lives, that gives us some kind of value. If you have a huge book collection, and you love the smell of the books, you love to read them, you truly have a passion.. of course you should keep them! But it seeks to prove that we forget to really consider, if the things we want so bad and that we fill our lives with really gives us this value and happiness. In many cases it sadly doesn’t. And again, I just love how it’s trying to challenge the tradtional way we want to build our lives. And shows us that happiness isn’t necessarily the classic white fence, big house, big car… It really gave me something to think about.

Anyway, I think you should all do yourself the favor and go watch it! If you have Netflix you can watch it HERE.

2 Comments

  1. Kristina // Frøken Lyngsø

    Tak for anmeldelsen og tippet! Den vil jeg sætte mig og se i aften med en skål snolder i hænderne 😉
    Vh

    Reply
    • signeh24

      Selv tak! Det kan du godt glæde dig til 🙂

      Reply

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