So when I attended Avila College, now Avila University, in Kansas City Missouri, I had a a Philosophy teacher,  Dr. H Paul LeMaire, who in the class stressed, “The more you have, The more you have, to take care of” I have to admit, I really do not remember many things from college, but that quote from Dr. LeMaire has always stuck with me. Because of that some family, friends, and others call myself, and my like minded beautiful wife, “Minimalists”. Possibly in some ways I am, but if you were to see my kite collection, I would have to politely beg to differ – I have way too many – and yes, I have written about this as well before. But this also could be said about my soccer jersey collection, or my shoes. So with that said, it’s that time of year yet again, that I start thinking about Christmas, and my wife. my daughter, and others are asking me what I would like as gifts…. Then I start looking around, and immediately realize that I have WAY TOO MUCH and I begin to decide I need to get rid of stuff. As we get ready to move to a smaller house, effectively downsizing in Wisconsin, I am again looking hard at my stuff, and am trying to do as much shedding of stuff that I can…. I don’t have a ton of interests – Soccer, Kites, electronics…. but all of those things I have too much. Yes, I am boring, and yes, I really feel the multiple chrome books, tablets, pc’s jerseys etc. are just too much… most people make it just fine with one of each… so I need to find to not have 9 of each. Being asked what I wanted for Christmas this year, I have really absolutely been challenged to find ANYTHING that I want. Jennifer and I are lucky to be in a situation that we really want for nothing, and monetarily, if we do want something, we go buy it. We just plan do not need to wait. We are lucky most people are not this lucky. So this brings me back to those words Dr. LeMaire uttered way back, 31 years ago in 1986 – and they have always stayed with me. Most other things I attended in college possibly did some how, but these words really have always stayed with me. So the next time someone asks you what would you like, maybe think twice. Funny enough, this is though, where the digital age really has made having stuff easier – my books? Digital, on my Kindle app. My music? For the most part, in the cloud, and I only subscribe to google play -much cheaper than buying all the discs. The subscription model in this scenario, works for me.