The psychologist and philosopher who coined the concept of “flow state”, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, wrote an article about the human love of stuff.
“It goes without saying that one consequence of our evolution as cultural beings has been an increasing dependence on objects for survival and comfort. Compared wtih the hunter-gatherers, described by Marshall Sahlins, who were horrified by the idea of having to accept gifts because it meant having to carry one more blanket or kettle along on their nomadic journeys, we are slowly being buried under towering mounds of artifacts. Recently, it has been calculated that every American will own more than four hundred electronic appliances during his or her lifetime. (Massimini, 1989)
This proliferation of artifacts would not be a problem were it not for the fact that objects compete with humans for scarce resources in the same ecosystem. Forests are being destroyed to provide lumber, wood and pulp; metal and oil are consumed to build and propel vehicles. The potential energy contained in our environment is dissipated as we convert it into objects, which rapidly become obsolete; thus we accelerate the processes of entropy that degrade the planet.”
In short, we are defined by our shit.
All that we own, owns us, in some form. All the treasures our characters surround themselves with, covet, seek out, reveals what they value, what they seek, the way they want to be perceived…
For boot-camp creative writing exercise 19, tell us about the stuff that reveals and defines a character – the item that they double back into the house to grab after the evacuation order is issued… the totem they tuck under their daughter’s pillow to ward off the monsters that wake her each night… the secrets tucked into a shoebox in the top of the wardrobe that even their husband doesn’t know of… The thing that reveals them…
