Minimalism, Van Life, and Vehicular Animism

Sorting out various mechanical issues with my Sprinter, while donating/selling/packing all of my stuff over the last few weeks has given me a lot of insight into my relationship with possessions.

I consider myself fairly materialistic. I care a lot about things. I care a lot about how things are designed and how useful they are. Craftsmanship is important to me, but I also love the hunt for a “good deal”. I semi-joke that I would rather get a good deal than get something I like. I love to find things at thrift stores and flip them on eBay. There is a thrill to seeing value in things that are overlooked. Most of all I love to make things. I love to find the right materials and components and processes and use them to create something original.

Lately, despite this materialism, I have been feeling the weight of possessions bearing down on me. This is tied up in a strong desire for change and new experiences. I am in the process of packing to move to Denver. I don’t have a specific place to live lined up. I’m going to be crashing with my Brother and my Dad for a while, and having adventures in my van. Both of those things are hindered by possessions.

I’m materialistic, but I’m not sentimental. I don’t keep birthday cards. I don’t worship gifts as being above other possessions. I have very few things from my childhood or from other people. I suppose I have a few tokens that I can’t get rid of, but not many. I think it would be nice to get to zero.

It has been super liberating to get rid of stuff and work towards a super minimal living situation. At the same time, it is a lot of work to get rid of stuff. I am eBaying and selling anything valuable, and dumping the rest at the thrift store or simply throwing it away. I know that in the interest of time and effort I am not getting full value out of things and am being wasteful, but damn it is a lot of work to find the right solution for every little thing.

So far there has been no regret for getting rid of stuff. I have yet to have inverse buyers remorse. I feel like I am moving towards a healthy disdain for stuff. But there is on possession that greatly affects my happiness and emotional state on a daily basis. My van! During the process of discovering issues, fixing them, finding other issues, etc. I have been incredibly affected by the condition of the van. When it’s not running I feel anxiety that I need to fix it. For a while I was sure the transmission was ruined and was super stressed about how to get a replacement and have that work done. Even now, I feel like I can’t totally trust it since I have found a couple problems recently. The feeling of just hoping you get where you are going before your van takes a shit is hard to forget.

Van life, or any RV living situation, offers freedom from the burden of possessions, while simultaneously and necessarily giving a possession the ability to affect your mental state and happiness. It makes me feel like these vehicles exist on a separate plane from other possessions. They transcend possessions and become more like a member of the family or tribe. They become aware and alive and spiritual.

Animism is the belief that things have a spiritual essence or alive-ness. I think our relationship to our vehicles is absolutely animism. We name them, we anthropomorphize them. We talk about them as if they have feelings or moods or intentions. We act as if our trust or encouragement of these vehicles can affect their basic mechanical operation.

I’m not sure what this means for my personal relationship to things, but it has been fun to think about the things I surround myself with and notice how they affect my mindset.

Lastly I am struggling to incorporate a new wordI think I just made up in a non-cheesy way, so I’ll just say it. Vanimism. Ha!