Wednesday, December 4, 2019

You're In Charge Of Acquisitions

Doo-dads
We had folks over the other day, and one of them admired one of my doo-dads, so I offered it to him, and then I offered up my old LPs, and then someone liked my shirt so I said he could have it, and suddenly Anna whipped her head around and gave me a look of pure alarm. It was adorable. Anna is a sensitive soul capable of worrying about climate change, the prison system, and racism all at the same time, so it's nothing for a big heart like that to wedge in a little worry about me, and whether or not I was thinking about checking out.

I'm not. At least I'm not thinking about checking myself out.

But it's true that the closer one gets to one's sell-by date, the less important any of one's stuff is. Or should be. Honestly, I don't know what's gone wrong with the billionaires.

I don't want anything new. I don't need it, and it's going to be made of or wrapped in plastic, sure as anything. This degree of calm in the face of all efforts to sell me something is brought to you by Mortality. Although--full disclosure--it also helps that I'm old enough to have already bought everything. And now it needs to go away. Death isn't something anyone wants, if they're lucky, but it is a gift of a sort, in that it gives you a little clarity about what's important.

I remember what it was like accumulating some of the crap I've got now. It was as if that little purchase would make me just a little bit happier. It didn't. If you're not actually poor but you still think you need to buy a lot of stuff, you should look into what personal hole you're trying to fill.

We got lots of stuff. Every morsel of it that goes away leaves a little bare space that feels better than whatever cluttered it before. Now we're headed into the holiday massive-consumption season and Dave and I are watching the advertising waves roll in with complete serenity. We're not getting each other anything. We're not getting anybody anything. It's nice to buy or make someone something special, but that can happen any time of the year, and for many of us this season is just one long awful obligation. And once you step off that ride, you've got more room for actually enjoying the solemn majesty of winter and candles in the window and the possibility of going caroling.

It's amazing what you can be talked into buying. In one recent ad, I discovered that not only should an already-beautiful woman want to gob up her eyelids with gold glitter, which is made of plastic by the way, but if she accidentally goops it on her cheek, she can wipe it away in one swipe with a special plastic towelette for just that purpose, and even better, she can get that one towelette wrapped in an individual plastic wrapper so she can keep it handy in her purse for on-the-go plastic makeup disasters. People. We need to get a grip.

So yeah. I'm old, makeup isn't going to improve me, and I've already bought everything. It's easier at my age. But we're all going to die. Maybe if we acknowledge that, we can let up a little on what's burdening the planet. And our own souls. This stuff's not about Christmas. It's about pushing profit for shareholders and further enriching the very rich. Let's help them out a little by withholding our contributions. It isn't making them happy or satisfied, obviously.

40 comments:

  1. Paul and I have opted out of the Christmas hoopla long ago. We don't do gifts, decorate, make special food. Nada. It's so much less stressful, and, as you say, it seems to be about obligation, not joy. When someone asks one of us "if we're ready for Christmas," and we say that we're always ready as we don't "do Christmas," they actually get a look of confusion on their faces. They don't even realize that this is on option! Lemmings.

    As to "stuff," I've been a minimalist for a long time, but even I periodically get rid of stuff. If I don't use it, don't love it, and it doesn't serve some special needed purpose, out it goes. Again, it's so much less stressful than having to tunnel one's way around one's possessions. Or rent a "living space" just for one's stuff. I just don't understand how people can justify THAT. Plus, it actually makes it quick and easy to clean one's home, and it feels so good to have clean surroundings!

    The only advertising I ever see is when we go out to dinner someplace that has a TV at the bar. I am astounded at the increase in the number of ads since the time we gave up cable. We stream or watch dvds when there is something we want to watch. No ads. Our computer has AdBlock, so no ads. I stopped subscribing to magazines because they became mostly ads and very little content. As for radio, we listen to NPR, especially a local classical/jazz station that they have. Again, so much less stressful than the bombardment one gets with commercial radio. (Remember when, as a collective, we were referred to as citizens and not consumers? WTF happened?)

    You'd think that with all these less stressful options that I would be free of stress? No. I can only imagine how bad it would be if I had all these other things going on around me.

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    1. You could ask me if I was "ready for Christmas" any time of the year, and I'd say "YES!"

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  2. Much like your efforts, my efforts for the past few years have been on getting rid of stuff (and not replacing it, of course!) Last year, I got rid of all vinyl-platter-based music in our house - and the equipment on which it was played. I'm currently doing the same for CDs and equipment. Like you, I give stuff away. It takes too much effort to sell stuff - and I eat quite enough as it is so don't need money for food!

    As an atheist, I don't celebrate Christmas; but, it's convenient (and wonderful) to see family while they can get the time off of work.

    Oh...I'm also, now, sorting through nails/screws/bolts and other stuff in our workshop, clearing out clutter. My dear husband had, 20 years ago, hung a Dustbuster and an electric screwdriver - in their recharging cradles that were, indeed, plugged into an electrical outlet sucking out Coulombs - on the wall of the workshop. They're not there any more! I'm probably saving us a mint by having unplugged them.
    Cop Car

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    1. Uh-oh. I've got a couple things plugged in in the basement. I don't think I ever really thought about it.

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  3. Captain Beefheart and Mott the Hoople?!? Yes, there is a fair amount of duplication of my collection, but those are classic. As are you. For the most part I am able to let a lot of stuff go and already have, especially since leaving the wife and the farm behind last spring. Everything I own is in my 512 square foot cabin. Except the Corolla because it doesn't fit. I am still paring down. They (you know, THEM) say that you spend the first 2/3 of your life accumulating stuff and the last 1/3 getting rid of it. I need less and less and it is giving me a feeling of freedom I didn't know existed. Freedom from stuff should be a Constitutional amendment.

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    1. P.S. I would take those records off your hands as I still play and listen to that stuff.

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    2. Hmmm. They'd take up a significant portion of your 512 square feet.

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  4. I dunno - I actually enjoy my stuff and I'm not ready to get rid of it yet. Give me another twenty years or so :) Decluttering gurus say you don't need stuff, you always have your memories, but my stuff helps jar my memories loose. I'm a visual person.

    But - and this is a big 'but' (stop giggling) - I've been a lot pickier about my acquisitions for the last ten years or so. Stemming the tide, so to speak.

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  5. When I think about how we moved into this house in one trip in a borrowed Econoline van, and what it would take to disgorge it now...

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    1. Oooo...that's scary, isn't it? We moved away from a college town to the city in which my husband had been extended a job in 1959 - by train. I think my husband shipped his foot locker via Greyhound Bus.
      Cop Car

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  6. The Swedish have a thing called dostadning, or 'death cleaning'...getting rid of your stuff before you die so your kids don't have to. So, there you go. But don't die. Not just yet. Please.

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    1. Gee! There's a name for my condition. Thanks for the education.
      Cop Car

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    2. Yes, "death cleaning"! It's a thing.

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    3. I call it "getting rid of things before the kids hold them up and say, 'What on earth was Mom keeping *this* for?' and rolling their eyes.

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    4. I'm torn between getting rid of all my nude photographs so the young'uns don't see them, and showing them to them now.

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  7. I don’t do Xmas as well. I do enjoy the family gatherings, the seasonal foods, cookies, and I love the lights. I do gift the children. Haven’t had a tree in 25 years. I do like the shocked and disbelieving looks when I say I don’t participate. No stress. Thanks for writing this for me to share!

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    1. Thanks for sharing! I said last year was the last tree, but I've said it before, and every time Pootie looks at me with those glass beads and...

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  8. NPR had an interesting article about this today: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/04/784702588/the-best-thing-you-can-do-is-not-buy-more-stuff-says-secondhand-expert

    I too am "Marie Kondo-ing" every few months, but whole-heartedly agree with the above-cited article and have sharply curtailed buying just to buy. The kids (now adults) get large checks at Christmas--a tradition my folks started with me and my sibs when we were young adults. Other than that, and a family dinner when all schedules align, that's the extent of holiday festivities. (Well, I do plenty of traditional caroling with the chorus, so that aspect hasn't disappeared from my life.)

    I think I need to rummage around in the attic and clear out some unused Christmas trees and decorations!

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    1. My resistance to buying more stuff--internet ridiculously cheap clothing that is totally worthless notwithstanding (and I've learned my lesson)--is getting world-class. Just today I went to our big food and department store and bought the food on my list and everywhere were displays of things I might have bought in the past, for gifts anyway...but I didn't care.

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  9. Too. Damn. Right. Happy Christmas Murr, if it's not too early, that is. {No clutter nor plastic was involved in the sending of this message.} x

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  10. I like to say we exchange glances at Christmas, but we do usually buy "stocking stuffers" along the lines of some new socks, a little good chocolate, a movie or good music. We have Tex-Mex for Christmas dinner, and I make up a big box of baked goodies and chocolates for our clinic's doctors and staff. They provide incredible care for the both of us, who have "complex" medical needs. Some years I get ambitious and put up a wee tree, some years no. Depends on how naughty the cat is. This year he's definitely on the naughty list, so I may skip the tree. Definitely no stressing though. Too old to try and keep up with the acquisition crowd.

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    1. I swore there'd be no tree this year, for once, but as long as Pootie is still around, I'm afraid there'll have to be some kind of shrublet.

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  11. I'm wearing a groove in the pavement outside the Salvation Army shop...
    I wear my clothes til they no longer have the strength to hold their patches.And as they are cotton,silk or wool, they end their days in the compost bin.
    Cassette tapes are a bit of a worry...

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    1. I'd have to have saved my 1992 car to play cassette tapes!

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    2. I saved my 1980's cassette tape recorder instead. It takes up much less room :)

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  12. I know perfectly well what personal hole I'm trying to fill and understand the futility of it, but I still buy stuff even as I'm giving away other stuff. Things will even out in the end I suppose as I have four children who will take at least some of the stuff and a couple of grandkids to take more of it. I just need to reach the point where I don't buy and it could happen any day now.

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    1. Sometimes circumstances conspire to get you to that point. Not wishing for that, though.

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  13. Both my sisters are shopaholics, especially clothing & jewelry. Not me. I go on a Shop Hop. This is an event where a bunch of us quilters rent a bus&driver and go from one shop to the next, buying fabric and thread and patterns, rummaging the sale tables, and carrying on as if we will run out of stuff. I have stacks of material I acquired this way. Why? Not sure. Could be that my hobby isn't quilting, it's collecting fabric. I can't think of any other buying activity that involves going to 6 or 7 of the same type of store in one day. Just going to 2 grocery stores in the same trip sounds nutty.

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    1. It sounds great to me. But I try to buy exactly the amount of fabric I need so it doesn't pile up. That leads to me, invariably, going back to the store to find one more eighth of a yard of some discontinued fabric.

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    2. Oh, knitters do exactly the same thing; we call it a "yarn crawl." It is organized by shops, so at least it's official or something.

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  14. Thank you, Murr! Exactly my thoughts. BTW, I'm one of your senior fans -- 82 in a few weeks.

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  15. There's always "I'm Jewish," if it happens to be true.

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