New, Old, and Everything Else ( #AtoZChallenge )

New things are nice, old things can be quite comfortable, and everything else is what life and the world is all about...



           New, Old, and Everything Else

     Now and then I might buy myself something new, rarely in a spirit of frivolity, but because it was something that I needed.  My most recent purchase other than daily necessities (food mostly) was a couple of belts.  One of my old belts had snapped after years of buckling and another was well worn on its way to its own demise.  New belts were needed since my pants all seem to be getting looser.  Which brings me to the question of should I gain back more weight to accommodate all my old pants or buy new ones. 

       If I can keep losing weight then that would be a good thing.  Currently I'm about twenty pounds from my college weight of about 180 and reaching that would likely mean a new wardrobe of pants.  Fortunately I still have hanging in my closets some smaller waist pants from days past or that had belonged to my late brother.   Come to think of it I have a lot of clothes in my closets.  Sure they've been hanging there a long time, but they are in good condition. 

       As the years pass I keep thinking about all the stuff I need to wear out or just get rid of.  Sometimes I am drawn to the idea of getting new things, but then I talk myself out of getting something I really don't need--not yet at least.  But when I do decide to get what I want, will it be there? 

        My problem with getting sparkling shiny new things is that they usually get quickly out-dated or I find something even better later.  That is the point when I reflect the necessity of most of the life extras that I purchase.  Throughout our home there are books, CD's, DVD's, and many other media forms.  I've got plenty and rarely use most of it.  But it's not just me or my household.  It's undoubtedly people you know and also probably you as well.

         Most of us probably get new things when the fancy strikes us.  We keep old things longer than they continue to seem useful to us.  We might even buy old things just because they seem new to us until we have had them long enough that they seem old again.  And there is everything else--those things we keep for sentiment sake or just in case we need it someday.

        Sometimes I want everything while other times I wish it were all gone.  I sometimes dream of living in a bigger house with more places for my things of life--of my life.  Or I dream of a smaller abode with low maintenance and not enough room to keep more than what I need. Or just become a wayward wanderer with nothing but the clothes on my back.

         Nah, I'm getting too old for that.  Besides, when I stop to think, I realize that maybe sometimes I think too much.  My personal surroundings are probably just a reflection of what's in my head.  If my brain were a house it would probably be just like the house I live in filled with things new, old, and everything else.

        What have you been trying to get rid of?  Are you an impulse buyer?   Is there some particularly cool item that you purchased long ago but still enjoy?

Limits of Accumulation ( #AtoZChallenge )

        If we could play a good game of hide seek in my house based on the amount of stuff stored in it then I'll deem that a limit of accumulation has been reached.   Likewise if my stuff is piled so high that I fear one day being buried in it...

Out of bookshelf space for books and out of house space for more bookshelves.

Limits of Accumulation

          In 1980 I took most of the year off from traveling with a touring show.   A divorce situation had come up in my life so I was working a regular job in the same city where my ex was settling with our son.  My situation at work was such that I could take off time when I wanted to work short show biz gigs.   Almost a year in one place meant that I accumulated furniture (mostly purchased from yard sales), stuff that I brought along with me, and the stuff that my new girlfriend brought with her.

          At the beginning of 1981 I secured jobs for myself and my girlfriend with the show with which I had previously toured.  Before leaving for the road life, we moved all of the stuff in our apartment to a storage unit.  At the end of that tour year we decided that since what we had spent on storage probably exceeded the actual cash value of what we were storing, we should get rid of most of it and store what little must-have keepsakes at each of our parents' houses.  We had reached our limit of accumulation. 

            Now, after being off the road for over 25 years, I have a houseful of space to store possessions.  As much as I like warehouses (I've worked in various warehouse situations), our house is not a warehouse.   This is a place to live and not a giant storage unit.  Fortunately I am nowhere near capacity stage other than a few corners and closets.  My books runneth over as the overflow goes into piles and boxes.  But they are books and by my estimation books deserve special consideration.

          Oftentimes, good organization masks a hint of over-accumulation.  That's been one of my main focuses:  I've been tackling potential trouble spots where amassing great quantities poses a threat.  I've been sorting, boxing, labeling and re-stacking wherever this has seemed appropriate.  My garage is far neater with everything more compact.   My office closets come next.

         Do you have things that you rarely see, stored in closets that you rarely open?   Have you ever rented (or do you now) a storage unit?    What would you deem worth storing in a space that you rented?   

Keepsakes? Land Sakes! ( #AtoZChallenge )

    What we keep might say as much about other people as what it says about us.  I enjoy looking at the things another person has decided to keep on display in their home.  If nothing else, having stuff out for others to see can make for good conversation starters.  

           Knickknacks can be found throughout our house.  Those are accompanied by numerous framed photos and other items someone felt worthy to display.  My wife, who is a teacher, receives lots of inexpensive figurines and the like from her students.  Some she puts in view for a while and others stay stored away until it's time to donate them. 

            Keepsakes--that what they are until we don't want to keep them anymore.  Most of us likely have keepsakes that we display throughout our households.  There are probably thousands, maybe millions of those trinkets like the ones my wife gets from her students in homes all across the world.  And likely even more in thrift shops and landfills.

           Land sakes alive!  All the essentially useless stuff that floods the marketplace fills up our lives.   Somewhere in the world people are sifting through the dirt to find enough grains of rice to make a meager dinner for their families while tonight I'll eat well within the walls of my dwelling filled with the stuff I need along with the stuff that I want in my life as well as the stuff that waits to be tossed out. 

           Keepsakes?   Land sakes!  We've got them at our house.  I guess they create a sense of decor.  They also can be connected to specific people or memories.  That works for me and if it doesn't then I start a donation box.  Maybe someone else will find their own meaningful keepsakes in what I've gotten rid of.

            Do you have a lot of knickknacks sitting on display in your home?    Do you collect things with any particular theme in mind?    Do you like to look at the knickknack collections at places you visit?  





 

Enigmas of Acquisition (#AtoZChallenge)

Humans are creatures of attachment with an innate desire to own things.  Wealth is usually associated with accumulated assets and ownership.  With that comes power.  Most of us want to have--even expect to have--electricity in our homes.  This is one symbol of the wealth of a society.   When we have that electrical power in our homes then we can feel a kinship to the elite, but whoever owns that power that is delivered to us has the real power over the rest of us and even they have to answer to higher powers...

Enigmas of Acquisition

        The things we hang onto in life are as varied as the people who hang onto those things.  What you like might seem to be of no value to me and my stuff might appear to be something that needs to be tossed out to the observer who is not interested in my life.

          Why we keep what we do is often an enigma to others.   Holding on to the truly useful or the valuable as perceived by those who make such appraisals probably makes sense to all of us, but that ratty old T-shirt or outdated computer keyboard that we insist on keeping in the closet with all of our other questionable stuff becomes the mystery that only the owner can adequately address with passion or at least some halfhearted defense.

      When our ownership of something has become the puzzler to which we find no answer then perhaps it is time to get rid of it.   Maybe someone else wants that thing that has become useless to us or maybe no one anywhere wants it.  Yes, some things reach a point where they are pointless to keep.  Time to recycle if you can, or just toss it into the trash.

       Yet there are still those odd things that feel like I should continue to retain.  If someone asks me why, then I'll come up with some kind of answer whether it makes sense to them or not.  As long as it continues to make sense to me then it stays.  Even though my argument to keep some relic of my past might make some sort of sense whether convoluted or entirely reasonable, if I want to keep it then it stays--for a while at least.  Until the next time I'm sifting through the detritus of my life.

       Why we humans keep the things we do might be an enigma known to the heart of the keeper, and even then the reasons for hanging on to that thing can be a mystery to any logical thought.  Human beings seem to have a need to possess things.  Even the homeless I see wandering my community push purloined shopping carts filled with the stuff of their lives and those without carts carry what they own on their backs or perhaps hidden away at some encampment they've called home for now.

        Whatever our possessions ultimately mean to us or anyone else, there is one certain fact:  You can't take it with you when you die.  Our storehouse of earthly acquisitions will be passed on to our heirs who will ponder the enigma of what was ours.  Our lives summed up in piles of stuff that others have to figure out what to do with it all.  It's the enigma that we all have faced or will face eventually.

           Can you effectively explain reasons for having kept everything that you still own?   Are there "mystery items" that you've had so long that you've forgotten their significance and yet are hesitant to toss out?    Why do you think that we humans feel the need to amass acquisitions of things?   

I Got Something (BOTB Results)

Our House Runneth Over

        Have you ever taken a thorough inventory of your possessions?   If you're like my wife and I, you probably have a ton of material goods that you own with much of it stashed away in closets, sheds, or garages.   A lot of stuff that you neither need nor particularly remember that you even own.

          I've never really bothered to assess everything that's in my house, but in clothes alone I'm sure there's a cumulative investment of many thousands of dollars--and I'm not talking about particularly expensive clothes.   There's just a lot of clothes.  If I could give up all the recorded music, movies, and other media that I own and get the money back that I originally invested in them I would imagine I could pay off our house and have a lot of money left over.   We don't own much in the way of high value items, but we have a ton of crap that has accumulated over the years that adds up to a lot of money spent.

        We've got something and a lot of it.  Yet how much do we need?  And I think we are pretty much exemplary of most households that fit our demographic description.   And yet we both kind of want more in a way, but in another sense we don't.

          The Gershwin Porgy and Bess tune "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'"  is about not needing material possessions for happiness or security, but enjoying the gifts of people and the blessings of the world around us--the God given gifts of life.  It's a similar philosophy as expressed in the popular song "The Best Things in Life Are Free".   Let's face it, most of the things we buy for ourselves wear out, break, or disappear and will typically lose the value that we invested in them.   It's those intangibles of life, our relationships with other people, and the amazing world all around us that are there for all of us to enjoy.   We don't need much when we've already got everything of true value that makes life most worth living.

I Got Plenty Of Results

          I can't complain about the votes my Battle of the Bands entries got in this recent round (follow the link if you missed the original post).  It was another crazy race with Brian Wilson's version remaining in the lead until right near the end.  Suddenly Tee and Cara swept ahead to win by a narrow margin.  But then Brian Wilson took another vote to bring things to a tie.  It was an exciting race to follow.

          And as it happens with a tie in a BOTB contest, I am left with the deciding vote.  Who do I bestow with the win?

           My love of pop music was nurtured to a great extent by Brian Wilson's group The Beach Boys.  Among the earliest albums I owned were The Beach Boys Concert (1964),  The Beach Boys Today! (1965), and The Beach Boys Party (1965).  I played the heck out of those albums when I was in junior high school and have long admired the genius of Brian Wilson.   I'd never realized that Wilson had released an album of Gershwin tunes until I began compiling candidates for this particular Battle.  What a discovery that was for me!  Two of my musical favorites, George Gershwin and Brian Wilson, on one fantastic album is like a dream come true.  This is an outstanding recording in my estimation.   Wilson's interpretation of "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'" is fun and original and highly enjoyable.

          However, Tee and Cara get my vote in this musical pairing.  It was their recording that inspired this Battle so in essence the Wilson recording was sort of like an afterthought.  I'm a huge fan of the album As They Are and the fact that Tee Sapoff and Cara Beckenstein never recorded anything else as a duo (at least not to my knowledge) is one of the great disappointments of modern music.   They wrote outstanding songs and everything on their album was performed with brilliance.   To think they were essentially kids when they recorded this album leaves us to wonder what they might have created as they gained more musical maturity.

 Final Count

Brian Wilson          15

Tee & Cara             16

      Be sure to be here at Tossing It Out next Thursday January 15th for my next Battle of the Bands entry.  The song I'll be using?  Watch for some hints on my Monday and Wednesday posts. 

Bonus Song!

       Cara Beckenstein continued with her career as a singer and writer after her pairing with Tee Sapoff ended.   I haven't found too much about what she did in the 40 years after recording As They Are, but there is the following recording she made in 2001 based on a children's book she wrote.   Give it a listen if you like and see what you think:



           Did you enjoy Cara Beckenstein's children's song?    What artists do you lament never having recorded more than they did?    Is there anything in your personal inventory of material possessions that you wish you could get your money back for?

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• A Bit of Nostalgia Courtesy of Annie Lennox
• The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time - no. 25 - "God Only Knows" - The Beach Boys
• Happy Birthday Ira Gershwin
• Battle of the Bands: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'