Stuff can have no value at all and yet sometimes it’s priceless.
A television programme about a former Top Gear presenter investing in a vehicle restoration business was striking – the older motor engineer was being asked to clear out some of his old ‘stuff’ in anticipation of moving to a new and super-duper facility. It was surprisingly emotional, it resonated. Anyone being asked to discard ‘stuff’ is bound to experience a turmoil and a certain amount of angst – the conflict between head and heart – you never know when that small off-cut of skirting board is going to come in handy, same for the half box of plasterboard screws, the old hand tools you inherited from your dad (that’s a non-negotiable) – they all have a value, but how do you value them?
Like a domestic dominatrix, Marie Kondo cracks the cleanliness whip – but there’s also a softer side to her view of household clutter which is at odds with the objective gusto of a minimalist lifestyle – I love her quote “The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” It’s just perfect, it’s not necessarily about the ‘thing’ itself, it’s about what the ‘thing’ does for you, how it fuels your heart, how it makes you smile, how it brings back memories. Stuff can have no value at all and yet sometimes it’s priceless.
The stuff we love having around us is of course printed on paper or pressed into vinyl – and talking of which, this morning we shifted around a bit of the furniture up in the Gallery so we can add more vinyl records – what would Marie say!
‘Bag of Tools’ by R.L. Sharpe
Isn’t it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?
Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make—
Ere life is flown—
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone.
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