Kevin Little: Simple living separates needs from wants. Part 4 of 4

There are some who think that to advocate a simple lifestyle is to propose something akin to Martin Luther's hair shirt [note: Martin Luther was opposed to hair shirts as being contrary to the gospel - kgp]. The truth is I am not giving up anything I truly desire.

And that's the point of this series: doing an inventory of your purchases and lifestyle will reveal what you really love and what you do only to make others happy. I truly believe that most of what we buy and do is not of us, not of who we wish to be, not our true selves.

I assume you've heard the expression "less is more." I'll give you a practical example. I recently went through more than 50 photo albums and boxes of old photographs compiled by my mother.

My mission was to eliminate the bad photos, the uninteresting ones, and sort out one album's worth of material for my two brothers, my Dad and me.

If I had kept every picture and arranged them accordingly, each of us would have had 13 albums. I know I would never have looked at those albums if I had taken this collection home. However, the 103 pictures in my one album are precious to me. I look at them all the time.

I don't believe we have the stamina, time or attention span to enjoy all of the perks we indulge. So we tend to amuse ourselves with whatever is...(continue reading here)