Post from Les.
Some Thoughts on Redeeming, Reclaiming, and
Repurposing
Part 1
I still feel I need to convince some of you out there as to why in the world we're shaking things up so radically at our age. If you know me very well, you know how it takes me a while to formulate a reply to a question because I always want to be understood. So, this will take a couple of installments to get it all out. I'll thank you in advance for sticking with this. :)
In the movie Amadeus, King Louis of France often
concluded a session of inquiry and discourse with the words “There you have it,” as if to say there
you have it in a nutshell. Enough said. The title above in like manner just
about wraps the discussion to follow before I even get started. So there you
have it . . . the proverbial bottom line . . . this is what makes me tick . . .
floats my boat, etc.
God wired me to have a spatial orientation and awareness. I don’t mean that I
have an interest in astronomy, but I relate spaces like an office, a room, a
closet, a box, or a shelf. Along with that add a propensity to think in linear
or parallel terms that result in a compartmentalized world view. My parents
wired me to be thrifty and to appreciate leftovers . . . be it food, wood
scraps, hardware, paper sacks, etc. With these two genetic codes colliding in
my makeup, I’ve turned out to be the kind who scrimps and saves boxes and bubble
wrap; a variety of jars and containers; and all kinds of broken
gadgets.
When I was a kid, some of my favorite things to collect were the empty tin boxes
that Band-Aids came in. They were just the right size to store playing cards,
Monopoly money and game pieces. I don’t believe that I fall into the category
of people who obsessively hoard things because I’m not into stashing away large
quantities of any particular thing. It’s just really hard for me to throw away
cool stuff like a nifty container with a lid that once held other things like
film, coffee, Christmas cookies or baby food. The way I figure, these things
could be given a new lease on life by using them to rightly divide my random
collection of nails, screws and thumbtacks.
Pool
Cues and Pot Passers
I
prefer to think of myself as a kind of Re-Purposer. But before I can do
that, I have to redeem a spent or wasted item from the trash bin and reclaim it
for myself with the idea that one day this item will come in handy and have a
whole new usefulness. As I see it, just about everything has multiple
applications and possible uses. The Beverly Hillbillies didn’t know what those
sticks on the parlor wall were supposed to do and the reason that strange
looking green felt dining table had holes in it, but they were really proud to
show off their fancy “pot passers” to their guests. Shoot, a little imagination
and ingenuity is all it takes to make the world go
around.
The same rule applies when I see a rusty old wheelbarrow in a junk pile; an old
gas station boarded up and forgotten for years; or those abandoned factories
with broken windows and KEEP OUT signs posted on the chain link fences. I just
have to level with you - this is the kind of stuff that rubs me the wrong way.
There’s a policy I’ve carried around in my head for decades that calls me to
action, and that is that “you’ve paid for this once . . . no need to buy it
again.” Why buy a product that comes in a nice box, bottle or protective case,
and when the product is finished, toss the container in the dumpster? Then,
later on you go out and spend money on some kind of fancy gadget to store your
cherished marble collection?
One of the coolest ideas I’ve have heard of in years was from the person who saw
the secondary benefit of those unwanted eyeglass cases that hang out in our
dresser drawers. A group of mission minded people gather these up in large
quantities from the community and stuff them with combs, toothpaste and
toothbrushes, moistened wipes, and bandages. Then they are donated in bulk to
the disaster relief agencies that dispatch teams to assist flood and storm
victims. This kind of innovation gets me so pumped because we’ve all got those
cases lying around somewhere. They’re cost free, readily available and waiting
to be redeemed, reclaimed and repurposed. Its pure genius . . .yet simple,
thrifty, practical, and needed.
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