I have a confession.
I am a Disney junkie. My sister and I clean our rooms to Disney music. The soundtrack to Tarzan gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. I am physically incapable of remaining quiet during a viewing of a Disney movie.
It’s pretty bad.
While I was driving home from work listening to my Disney station on Pandora (don’t judge me), “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book played. I have known this song my whole life but one stanza stood out to me as I drove and sang along:
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
You got your minimalism in my Disney! No, you got your Disney in my minimalism!
I think this little snippet of a silly song from a children’s movie has some great observations that apply to daily life in 2012. People covet and want and need to need new things. But when we realize that our lives are no worse for not having the stuff in our lives, we stop needing to need, and we’re happy with what we have.
Have any song lyrics or images surprised you like this?
Caitlin Liz Fisher 
When I was at school when I was 10 or 11 years old we had a songbook at school called Piper’s Mountain. The basic storyline was Piper’s Mountain was the mountain the Pied Piper led the children too. The mountain was now occupied by people who had retained the youth and lived in a blissful way. Their secret was not being greedy or coverting things. Outsiders arrived and some of them saw saw it as an opportunity to make money and sell them everything. The song I remember most was ‘You can’t have everything’ with the lines ‘you can’t have everything, whatever made you think you could, where would you put things for a start, you’d cram every cupboard with no room to hide, no room for happiness in your heart, you would be so busy things counting things you peace it would annoy.’
Wow. Definitely a minimalist message there. Thanks for sharing!
That is crazy, guess Disney loves minimalism, as long as you buy all of their movies on VHS! haha I love Disney as well, and when I see a Disney movie I haven’t seen since I was a little kid, I am so surprised to notice the lessons I didn’t realize were in there. Great post.
Thanks! I also enjoy looking back on childhood favorites and realizing all the stuff I never knew was in them! 🙂 Sometimes it’s life lessons and sometimes it’s hilarious jokes (Hercules – “That play, that Oedipus thing? I thought I had problems!” – HILARIOUS).
Yay for Disney loving minimalists with lots of student debt! Thanks for reading 🙂