A Few Chance Reminders That Maybe We Don’t Need All This “Stuff” Around Us

The sensibilities of our consumer lifestyle are so ingrained in us that the few people we encounter who simply don’t care about wealth and accumulating “stuff” appear quite odd to us.  I was reminded of this yesterday, when I realized it was the birthday of Henry David Thoreau.

And coincidentally, I just got off a conference call with some folks up in Canada talking about a breakthrough in compress air energy storage, during which one of them jokingly likened me to the ancient Athenian Diogenes with his lamp.  It seems that ol’ Diogenes carried a lamp even in the bright of day, and told anyone who asked that he was “looking for an honest man.”

The joke went over my head at the time, but, piecing the conversation back together, it came in response to my remark that I’m always looking for the very best renewable energy projects, as potential investment opportunities.  In any case, Diogenes was like Thoreau on steroids – he seriously repudiated the trappings of wealth and convenience, and lived the simplest of lives.  And btw, we probably quote Diogenes more than we realize; some of the ideas for which we best remember him are linked here, including one I use all the time:  “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”