getting rid of stuff

i used to think that getting rid of stuff would make me a better person.  so i donated a ton of stuff to individuals, charities, and groups in need.  i filled dozens of bags with stuff.

now that's all fine and good, and living a smaller material life has a myriad of benefits, but the more i thought about it the more i realized that by giving things away, i wasn't really giving anything away but simply acquiring nothing.  the problem of my orientation was that i sought to "get" nothing by giving things away, which ultimately is just a different form of the acquisitive mindset that had gotten me all the things i was giving away in the first place.