Super Sunday: Lifestyle Questions

On Sundays I write about one of the joys of full-timing

Over on In Context magazine, I found a thought-provoking article about lifestyle choices.

According to the article, the term "lifestyle" was coined in 1929 by Alfred Adler.

"For Adler, "lifestyle" was the sum total of the values, passions, knowledge, meaningful deeds and eccentricities that constitute the uniqueness of each individual.

In recent years, however, the word has become associated with the kind of job we have, how we spend our leisure time, the nature and quantity of our possessions. "Lifestyle" has come to mean what one has, rather than what one is."

The magazine editors propose a series of about 30 questions for reflection, to help distinguish our "who we are" lifestyle from "what we own."

I was immediately struck by the following questions, because my answers now as a full-time RVer are so much different than when I was working and living in a conventional home. For now, I am just going to list the questions that caught my eye. I'll come back at a later date and start to answer them. Perhaps you will ponder your own answers.

• What is the purpose of your job?
• If you didn't need to work for income, what would you do with your time?
• What is the smallest amount of money you could live on for one year?
• What was the last thing you bought that you really didn't need? Why did you buy it?
• What issues do you feel strongly enough about that you will write to your elected officials or the newspaper to express your views?
• What was the last new thing you learned? What do you want to learn next? What would you like to teach?
• What would you be willing to give up to attain spiritual enlightenment?
• How many of your friends are from a different culture or race than you? How did they become your friends?
• In what ways has your life directly benefited from contemporary science and technology? In what ways have you been harmed?
• If you had no money, would you still have the same friends?
• How do you decide what clothes to buy?
• What would you estimate to be the total weight of all your possessions?
• If you needed to, could you grow your own food? Do you know where your food comes from now?
• What kinds of things are you unwilling to buy second-hand? What are your reasons for wanting those things to be new?
• Do you feel comfortable borrowing things from your neighbors? Why or why not?
• What is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to you?
• Where, how, and why do you travel? What do you give to the places you visit? What do you bring home?
• What do you think about when you think about home?