Yellow-and-Blue Hats

Day 184: Yellow-and-Blue Hats and Other Winter Gear

I read an essay years ago called "In Praise of Hometowns" in a book of essays called Sustainable Planet. This was two decades ago, before sustainability was a buzzword. This was back when I was living in San Francisco, loving it while at the same time missing the seasons, missing having a backyard, missing the sound of crickets, missing being able to find a parking space at the grocery store and running into someone I know while shopping there.

The content of that essay is, of course, blurred, but I know what it meant to me. We are like Erysichthon: the more we eat, the hungrier we become. Doomed never to be sated. Our home towns aren't enough; we are spurred to move on, looking for a better job, a better house, better weather, better everything. The same impulse that spurs us to leave our hometowns also spurs us to upgrade our technology, our wardrobe, our automobile, our kitchen counters, our mattresses, our shoes, our sofas, our lawn mowers, our bath towels and our silverware. It's poetic that Erysichthon translates as "Earth-tearer."

So here I am today, looking at a carful of junk: a month's worth of getting rid of one thing per day, because that's how long it's been since my last trip. Sad, tired-looking crap that I'm embarrassed to give away.  It occurs to me that the Salvation Army, the PTO Thrift Shop, the Thrift Shop, the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop, ValueWorld, and the Goodwill are enabling our addiction to crap. We can kid ourselves that as long as this stuff is going to a good cause, we're not doing any damage. 

Among the crap are some things we never needed in San Francisco: outgrown mittens and silly yellow-and-blue jester caps especially for child-sized Michigan fans. All of it drawn from the Earth by some convoluted process, with intention. It's the American way. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all  men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Or, as in Jefferson's initial draft, life, liberty and the pursuit of property.