Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Personal Injury Law Blogs -> Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Law

: Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer

In some ways I envy the dead man in the dumpster, Jimmy Lankford.

By Steve Lombardi

Maybe he was just a man choosing a different lifestyle on terms he dictated. Maybe Mr. Langford chose to own less so he could have more of something else that was to him of higher value.

Here is what I mean by his having more after choosing less.

A fifty-year-old man was found in a dumpster dead and lying in a sleeping position. Foul play was not suspected and he was described by a niece as a 'free spirit'. Which of course raises a question about whether this was perhaps just a choice to live a different lifestyle. Some people might be quick to say such a lifestyle is a sign of a mentally imbalanced person, but I tend to disagree with that conclusion. First allow me to say I could not make the same choices as Jimmy Lankford, I want nothing to do with making a choice to sleep inside even a clean dumpster, let alone one sitting behind a shopping mall. But if I had to; I could and would. I don't and won't if I have any control over it, but I'm not willing to say Jimmy Lankford was, without more proof, mentally imbalanced. Maybe he was just a man choosing a different lifestyle on terms he dictated. Maybe Mr. Langford chose to own less so he could have more of something else that was to him of higher value. Here is what I mean by his having more after choosing less.

Anyone who's mountain climbed around the globe will appreciate what I'm about to say. There are some people you meet on the mountain and around the world that chooses to live a life unattached to creature comforts that most people in this 'civilized society' would ever be able to live without. Where we see security in owning a lot of things, there are those who see nothing but an anchor around our necks. I have a brother whose main goal in life appears to me to own nothing that has to be insured. That seems to be his goal in life. I allow him this difference between us although we live very different lifestyles. He lives life on terms he himself dictates, for the most part; I live according to rules society controls for the most part.

"I've said to my kids time and time again, buying that 25th pair of shoes won't make you any happier than buying the second pair did.", Steve Lombardi

But living life on terms these individuals choose is important to their achieving happiness. Choosing to avoid creature comforts like a warm bed, and a roof that protects you from the weather isn't what some people want or need. What they need most is freedom to travel on terms they dictate that constantly tests their ability to survive under harsh conditions controlled by Mother Nature. They do so because they want more of something we don't have much of. Do you know what that something is?

In doing so they seem to have more of what we don't, free time. It's isn't so much about how much they accumulate in possessions as much as it is about how their time is spent while accumulating stories of survival and living on the edge. It's about choosing to walk to the edge of the envelope and into an adventure where the daily outcome isn't predictable. It's about walking in the opposite direction of safety while living life as one chooses.

I believe we can all learn something from those who choose to live a less cluttered lifestyle. First think of your kids at Christmas time. I'll bet if you asked each of your children to list five gifts they received for the past two Christmas' they would be unable to answer, even though they'd received many more than five gifts each season. On the other hand if you asked them to describe the past two vacations your family took together they could describe with great detail the events of the vacation and what they enjoyed the most.

So ask yourself, what do they put a higher value on:

gifts or time spent seeking adventure?

This is what I call the value of adventure and travel over the value of possessions. It's not about the things we own or receive; value isn't found in possessions. Value is found in time and how we choose to spend it.

A Nepalese man said to me, 'You Americans have everything and yet you have nothing.' My first thought was oh you can't do that to me. That statement blew me away for the next two-weeks. Just putting what he said into perspective in terms of my own life took up most of my time on the trail to Everest Base Camp. So what did he mean? What he meant can best be shown with this analogy.

A person works for 30 plus years at improving their lot with a better job, a bigger house, more expensive cars, equipment and household furnishings. In the end they have accumulated a huge home full of possessions and the need for the higher paying job. The job is critical to storing, maintaining, insuring and paying for the taxes and insurance on owning them. But with that high paying very responsible job comes the extra hours needed to work to earn the money needed to pay the real estate taxes and insurance premiums needed to maintain ownership. By the time the owner earns enough to do all of that he has no time to use the house full of equipment. Essentially he has everything he ever wanted but no time to play, to appreciate or get the benefit of its use. And so what does he really have of any value to him?

Where is the sense in this one?

"So help me understand why you make fun of me for wearing clothes for more than one season; and yet you tattoo your body in permanent body art.", Steve Lombardi

He has everything and yet he is worse off than if he had nothing. He gets to work right up to the day they put him into the grave. The only one's happier than the estate lawyer and heirs are the insurance company who insured the junk, the bankers who lent the money and were paid interest and the government that collected the taxes. He worked to buy and maintain possession of it but never really got to use it. He spent his time possessing things; possessions owned his time.

Perhaps the guy in the dumpster had more than we can appreciate. Perhaps he understood the value of time better than we understand the time-value of money. Perhaps his time on this earth was in some ways wiser spent. He invested in time and owned his time, while we invested in owning things. And so considering our own possessed lives perhaps his niece's statement is placed in better perspective.

"He had a free spirit that took him further than most."

I'll say an Amen for Jimmy Lankford and to the rest of us, onward we march.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on July 22, 2009 (boomark / email).