Mar 18, 2007

Hunker down and love up what you got

grandparents’ table

I can tell things are going awry
when I want new things

better faster prettier sexier cleaner newer older things
that will make the problem
(whatever the problem)
go away

they don’t, of course
(as if you didn’t know)

all the new things do
is make it harder
to find what you were looking for
under the other things—

the original things

the pain-in-the-ass
busted-up
broke-down
not-working
FUBAR horsepokey assmonkey facacta things

because the thing is
you do not learn from a thing
you thoughtlessly discard
or haphazardly shove aside
or even lazily disregard

you learn from the things
you measure carefully
you turn around in your head
and your hand
feeling their heft and weight and oily accumulation of dirt
before deciding
whether to keep or scrap or somehow alter

the learning
comes from the considering

so when you hit a wall
and you NEED NEED NEED a new thing
to get you out of an old corner

hunker down
and love up what you got

and you’ll get it all back
in spades, my friend—
in spades…

xxx
c

Image by thejane via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

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5 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. claire

    Today, I buy your argument. Just this morning, before I got in the shower, I was staring at the connection of my shower head wondering why it’d started leaking by the hose. I’d tightened the connection previously while in the shower, so it didn’t make sense that it was leaking more….

    Until I looked at it from outside of the tub and the solution was obvious. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey except not always… Sometimes the turning around in your head is literal.

    Mar 18th, 2007

  2. Not Faint Hearted

    PLUS, there’s the added benefit that you won’t have to toss it all one day…or that the people who come and clean up your place after you’re dead and gone won’t have so much crap to toss.

    huh, don’t really know where that came from…

    Mar 19th, 2007

  3. Mary Ellen

    I never thought I’d say this, for all the years of money worry, but I miss the simple life when, no matter what I wanted, I couldn’t afford it. My mind was quiet with that one fine book, savoring every word from start to finish. Now the pile of the unread books (unworn clothes, unused stuff) mounts. The only fix for the resulting nausea (and I do mean nausea–dizzy head, sick stomach, the whole nine yards) is exactly as you say, my friend–everything I need is nowhere to be found in my stuff. My stuff only gets in the way.

    Mar 19th, 2007

  4. Phil

    Well said C…I’m selling my farm and relocating after 15 years. I have a huge amount of junk to dispose of. I have a home based business that has allowed me to create a justification for indulging what I call the “passion for possession”. I thought I needed the things I bought. The more “cylinders” I had the more fulfilled I’d be or so I thought. I am now directing my passion toward developing a simple minimulist existance.
    BTW If you visit my website be sure to read the blurb on “About Your Host”

    Mar 24th, 2007

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