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Why Happy People Own Less Than You Think
The Surprising Wisdom of a Generation that Never Needed a Smartphone
I was thinking about how my grandmother used to make a cup of tea. I still remember the way her hands shook slightly as she poured hot water into her favorite cup — the white one with a hairline crack running down its side.
A Memory in a Cracked Teacup
She had that cup forever but refused to replace it.
When I asked her why she didn’t buy a new one, I got a simple response. “Things don’t need to be perfect to be precious,” she said.
That’s when I started thinking the way we live in modern society. (My phone buzzed four times while writing this article. )
Emails, texts, social media — all scream for attention and chime when we ignore them. In this fast-paced world, they refuse to be denied.
The Overload of Modern Living
And we’re drowning in stuff too. Closets bursting with clothes we never wear, and Amazon packages dropped on our doorsteps almost daily.