Rewire us please

I know it’s not true. Why do I hold fast to the assumption those “new” items will work or even meet basic expectations when they arrive in my home? I constantly forget to give “new” items a good once over while shopping. More often than is right I must about face and return a “new” item because it is defunct, lacking. I waste too much time on “new” items and I don’t even buy that many compared to the average American consumer. (I do not enjoy the abuse of quotation marks, but time has taught me that new items are often “new.”)

Let us be clear. Just because an item is new, it doesn’t guarantee that it: 1) has never been used before and returned; 2) is clean; 3) is in working order; 4) has all the parts required to work; or 5) will function in the manner as promoted. All five unfortunate events have happened to me many times. They’ve happened to you as well. We take the abuse. Think of all the miles wasted to return or exchange a “new” item. The time in return lines. The anxiety spent on whether we will be challenged or insulted by clerks standing at the dreaded customer service desk. I’d like to see these figures in the February Harper’s Index.

Let's face it. Not everyone returns or exchanges a newly purchased disappointment. Many are tossed in the trash or sent packing to thrift stores. How could we be so wasteful?

I thoroughly inspect secondhand items. Rarely does a thrift store purchase not meet expectations when carted through the front doors of my home. This phenomenon needs a catchy title. Anyone?

I have mantras that come in handy in the thrift store. Why are they chucked out the window when I enter the conventional market? Is it the music that choreographs shoppers to spend more? The overpowering product displays? The offensive maneuvers of a commissioned sales staff?

From now on, I’m going to dope slap myself out of the haze of the check out lines so that I might avoid the return lines.

The price of living

As January sets in, I face another birthday. At 44, I don’t consider myself “old” but I no longer see eye to eye with youth. Could this be the nether years?

My daughters are growing up; fast. College will set upon my oldest faster than I’m prepared while my youngest clings to the elementary school years and I cling with her. I’ve cuddled with Little Pie most every night of her life. Hard to imagine that shall pass.

Watching them grow makes me aware of my own mortality and I realize just how lightly we tread on the history of humankind.

Going lightly is an approach I try to apply to many life endeavors. It’s common sense.

My home is a collection of historical curios, books, and items pulled from the forest compiled in attempt to evoke a rounded curiosity in my daughters. I think it has. But sometimes, like when I have the blues, it feels a bit overwhelming and a visit to some Scandinavian furniture store to replace my curios and mix-matched vintage with light wood and simple lines seems to make sense. That’s likely the fault of the blues. Stepping back, I see that we are not consumption junkies, though the basement is always tornado alley after the holidays. My little family is moderately mindful about our material acquisitions.

But it still begs the ultimate question, why do we consume so much when life is so short? Especially when so many of us place a higher value on experiences rather than material goods. Think of all the possessions and waste each of us will leave behind. In many ways, the current American culture forces us into a corner of consumption instead a plain of awareness.

In a world where it can be so confusing as to what action is best for the planet and future generations, I can take refuge in the fact that shopping second hand is a sustainable practice. At least I know I'm doing one thing right.