Sunday Firesides: Tidying Up Our Gilded Cages

“Minimalism” has been a popular trend over the last decade or so, and has only reached a fever pitch of late. People are downsizing their possessions, decluttering their homes, throwing away anything that doesn’t “spark joy.”

It’s possible to see something positive in this trend, to believe it bespeaks a greater desire for discipline and a lessening atta…