Is there life after the city dump?

Is there life after the city dump?

Everything has a cycle of life. Even junk.

A fascinating documentary followed the life of a T-shirt from its manufacturing to its shelf life to an owner in the U.S. to a a small African village where it was worn until it was threadbare.

Its life was fulfilling and robust, serving and long. It ended up in shreds after so much use that it just couldn’t go on any longer, having gone above and beyond the expected call to service.

“Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

But do most objects live such a complete life? Do humans? Do animals? Who’s judging? Is there even a judge?

What I brought to the dump was broken, unfixable or just beyond a useful existence. Most of our stuff has gone to The Salvation Army, second in line to friends and whoever we thought might get some use out of something, too much went into the bin and a fraction we actually stored to use again one day.

In rankings of how much joy I had in giving away our stuff, it was a clear hierarchy:

1. Friends: we sought them out and gave them what we knew they would appreciate and use.
2. School: they really appreciated it because they really needed it.
3. Family: some would appreciate the history of something and remember and be reminded of it.
4. The Salvation Army: I’d like to hope that someone will appreciate something of ours, although it was hard to keep up the love when it was tossed in the back of a huge truck.
5. Trash: out of sight, out of mind, it was bye-bye and who knows where it would end up.
6. Dump: this was more drastic than just the garbage can. More as if I brought someone all the way to the cemetery.

“The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.”
― Marie Kondō

Can we learn anything from objects? If not, how about how we treat and live with and part from objects?

Take a trip to the dump and just observe. Our city dump even has tours (or maybe that was only with the elementary school). Somehow I got the feeling that not everything on the entire mountain of trash had been kissed goodbye by their owners and thanked for their service. But who knows.