On Throwing Things Away
Still Point Arts Quarterly|Winter 2016

I will work until my mind finds peace, even if that means I will work for a very long time.

- Leslie Ihde
On Throwing Things Away

Shaker Brother Ricardo Belden, making wooden oval boxes in a workshop at the Hancock Shaker Village, near Pitts field, Massachusetts, 1935.

It’s not easy to throw things away. not for some personalities. The ugly fabric — there might be a use for it. The sandals that don’t look as fresh as they once did — maybe I’ll wear them on a rainy day when I don’t want to ruin my new ones. Single bed sheets — I don’t have a single bed anymore, but the unfitted sheets might be useful for something.

The problem is that throwing things away has so many implications. It can mean you no longer have a purpose for the thing you are throwing away, or you are disturbed by the emotions you associate with it, or maybe you realize it was a mistake to buy it. Wasteful, careless in decision making, someone who makes mistakes — none of these is easy to admit about ourselves. Is it perhaps our refusal to admit error that keeps us from throwing something away?

We live in an environment of our own making, but at some point we outgrow it. Perhaps the dresser from our childhood still occupies a prominent spot in our bedroom. Maybe our wardrobe is filled with outmoded representations of who we are; have we missed the fact that those pants are no longer flattering? Mistakes can weigh heavily on the soul.

この蚘事は Still Point Arts Quarterly の Winter 2016 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

この蚘事は Still Point Arts Quarterly の Winter 2016 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

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