visible rites of passage
This weekend we started having a garage sale. Yeah I know, it’s alot of work, but junk does often have the tendency of piling up. It’s true what they say, we’ve become a throw away society. A society of rampant consumerism, consumerism without purpose, simply to buy things for the sake of buying things. The only thing that holds people content is a certain amount of drug taking and buying things to simply take home and watch it dispose of itself before your very eyes to be bought, destroyed, recycled, and bought again. I can’t afford it anymore. It’s almost to the point where whatever I buy, I think about what it's going to cost and how I will eventually get rid of the item, and then tack that on to the price. I’ve tried to blame the situation on the basement not being large enough, but today I realised that, in the end, I’m the one to blame.
I've never experimented with buying or selling on eBay, nor did I take this as an opportunity to start. Through speculation, I'm not sure, but I think you can print out shipping labels and leave the packaged item on the porch and the post office will pick it up and mail it, without you ever having to speak to an actual person. I’m the one not putting the crap to good use, which is why I’ve decided not to sell. I took it out of the box, dusted it off and figured these things must still be good for something, so here I am blogging about it.
Eventually I said forget the hassle of a garage sale and give the old stuff away to the Salvation army or Goodwill store. It helps others and the profits from such places as the Salvation army continue to help maintain a Soup kitchen for the homeless. The garage sale is just one of the only visible rites of passage in modern suburban life of haggling with neighbours over the price of twice-used power tools and never-used souvenir T-shirts.
At the end of the day you'll find letting the public peruse your purchasable goods can lead to such courageous acts of self-realization. Shed your possessions for the greater good! I qualified the thought of it when I attended the film, Buddhist Trilogy at the Bytown cinema after closing shop and found that if Buddha owned a blender that "works pretty good, but doesn’t really fit right on our counter," well, he’d do the same.
I've never experimented with buying or selling on eBay, nor did I take this as an opportunity to start. Through speculation, I'm not sure, but I think you can print out shipping labels and leave the packaged item on the porch and the post office will pick it up and mail it, without you ever having to speak to an actual person. I’m the one not putting the crap to good use, which is why I’ve decided not to sell. I took it out of the box, dusted it off and figured these things must still be good for something, so here I am blogging about it.
Eventually I said forget the hassle of a garage sale and give the old stuff away to the Salvation army or Goodwill store. It helps others and the profits from such places as the Salvation army continue to help maintain a Soup kitchen for the homeless. The garage sale is just one of the only visible rites of passage in modern suburban life of haggling with neighbours over the price of twice-used power tools and never-used souvenir T-shirts.
At the end of the day you'll find letting the public peruse your purchasable goods can lead to such courageous acts of self-realization. Shed your possessions for the greater good! I qualified the thought of it when I attended the film, Buddhist Trilogy at the Bytown cinema after closing shop and found that if Buddha owned a blender that "works pretty good, but doesn’t really fit right on our counter," well, he’d do the same.
posted by daneatkinson at 12.8.06
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