Things Are No Longer Things

What if one day you woke up and things were no longer a thing?

Let's take a moment and define things. For the sake of this post, please assume that they are things such as cars, houses, clothes, computers, phones, etc. I'm not necessarily suggesting that they will evaporate overnight, but rather that our priorities suddenly become placed on other things because of a sudden accident, illness, or passing of a loved one. But who knows? Maybe things really will just evaporate:)

If this happened, there would probably be a few groups of people. Let's discuss them, shall we?

Group #1: This group is utterly distraught. All their hard work suddenly goes "down the drain, with nothing to show for it." Things were their life, possessions and collections drove them to work. They spent long hours working to be able to purchase more things. They often have very nice homes with lots of admirable things inside, but very little meaning is associated to all of their stuff. These people are all about looks and outside appearances; they invented "cool." Things are no longer a thing, and they are lost and empty without their vast amounts of stuff. Their relationships with people probably weren't stellar since possessions were a priority in their life, and people came in second.

Group #2: This group isn't distraught, but they aren't thrilled either. They like their stuff, it is mostly sentimental things someone gave them for Christmas from Walmart, but it was very thoughtful. They appreciate stuff and like to keep it around. If you want to get their heart, all you have to do is buy them a present. They don't focus all their energy on things, they have a solid relationship with the people they associate with, but they don't necessarily go out of their way to make the world a better place for everyone, because things are pretty fabulous.

Group #3: This group doesn't care that things are no longer a thing. They have everything they need in life without things. Their relationships with family and friends are strong, they are trustworthy (not that the other groups necessarily aren't) and they have compassion. They love their life without things, they have memories of grand adventures and good times to fill those spaces where things can creep into your desires. They go out of their way to serve others and give what they can, when they can. The world is at their fingertips because they don't dedicate all their time, energy, and resources to obtaining more and better things. Their lives are filled with meaning; their intents are always good. They constantly strive to make the world a better place.

Now, these are the three main groups according to me, but there are definitely subgroups and varying levels within each group.

Let's say tomorrow you wake up and all of your things weren't available. How would you react? I'm going to suggest that you do a self evaluation by placing yourself in a group, and see if you like where you end up. If you do, great! If not, it might be time to change your mindset...because who knows, tomorrow you could wake up and things are no longer a thing.