Manifesto

I enjoyed reading John Durant's book about the paleo manifesto recently and it got me thinking about a personal manifesto based on the increasingly eccentric way that I live my life. Maybe one of the points on the list should be to embrace eccentricity without disappearing up ones own orifice and being straightforward weird.

One of my new ideas is to make a big effort to take a step back from being such a consumer. As stuff gets cheaper, then the lifespan of said stuff seems to get shorter and shorter. Maybe I can get more satisfaction out of owning things and appreciating them as the weather and get a patina rather than always wanting something shiny and new. I was stuck by the thought reading a book recently when the character was quite unhappy and uncomfortable having had to buy a new hat having lost his old one.

So my first step is going to be to concentrate on only buying things that I need rather than want and concentrating on buying quality things, preferably made either locally or by companies who look after their workforce in a way that I would like to be looked after as an employee.

Example 1 - my new Chapman Bags holdall that was made in Cumbria (except I didn't need it as such...)