Minimalism in Disney: Baloo's Bear Necessities

When you're a child, there's really so much great advice out there that you probably didn't even catch. Aside from the great Dr. Seuss quotes that I previously blogged about, Disney movies are also a great source of adult advice that we tend to tune out. After a night of singing Disney songs last weekend, I realized that Baloo really knew what he was talking about. Who knew that I would have watched that movie so many times without realizing that he was talking about a form of minimalism?

Look for the bear necessities
The simple bear necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bear necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bear necessities of life 

Great! Here we have some minimalism and what sounds like veganism to me, too! How did I just now hear this in the lyrics?! Have about the part where they are floating the water? Let's take a look at those lyrics!

Yeah! This is really livin'!
So just try and relax, yeah cool it
Fall apart in my backyard
'Cause let me tell you something little britches
If you act like that bee acts, uh uh
You're working too hard
And don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you

My only regret is that I didn't figure out all of this sooner. I now tend to enjoy my life more without worrying so much about things. As Baloo says, you can really live without so much. For us, "bare necessities" is something that we're still working on. During our recent move, my husband suggested that we go down to one plate each. While we aren't there just yet, it's still challenging us to rethink how we consume, what we do with the money that we have, and how we don't really need all that we've had.