No U-Haul behind a Hearse

(photo from the Internet--I don't really think someone tried to "take it with him"!)

The title of this post may make you scratch your head a bit--but I looked around for an appropriate quote to get at the idea of possessions, and every one I found just seemed lame.

So I recalled this old expression--no idea who might have first said it, but it conveys something that speaks to my heart. Of course, the gospel statement of "what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" says it so much better.

So, why this rumination of possessions? Because my husband and I have just given away our dining room table and chairs. Now, mind, we are not going without such a table. We found a new one that is on its way, so I put the old table and chairs on Freecycle (yes, my friendly Internet give-away site).

It was the responses that just blew me away. I really struggled making a decision about whom I should select to give the tables and chairs.

(photo from Internet--this is NOT our old table and chairs!)

Here are some of the things people wrote in response to my offering the furniture (with no corrections as to how they expressed their need):

--Hello I Am Very Intrested In This Dining Set, I Am A Single Parent And
Just Moved In Area And I Have A Person From My Daughter's Nursing Hospice Care That Would Be Glad To Pick Up For Me, I Can Really Use This For My Family

--We're interested in the table and chairs. We 'inherited' an older table
from my wife's deceased grandmother a few years ago. It had been around for
quite a time - and was in storage for a few years before we acquired it. It has
never been in good condition since we got it - and most of the chairs are
broken. We've been holding out to find/purchase a newer set - but haven't
done so yet as there are always other pressing needs.

--I would be very interested in yoru dining table and chairs. We
moved here a couple of years ago, with nothing, from CO. Due to health
reasons we moved here to be near family. We have accumulated quite a few
items, but are still in need of a dining table and chairs. Since moving
here, we also moved my daughter and her two children in with us. I believe
it is so important for families to eat together as a family and discuss their
day. Any way, I would be very interested in your dining table and
chairs. Please consider my request. Thank you and God Bless

--We would love to take the table off your hands. We are a family
of five and haven't been able to sit at the table together for about two years
now. I would love to be able to eat as a whole family again. We
could pick up by sat. for you. It would be Friday I think my husband has a
meeting for scouts Thursday night. We could pick up tonight, but I see you
want to wait for 24 hours. I understand that. Let us know if we are
the ones chosen and I will make sure he has the trailer here at our house
waiting to come get it.

--if you still have the table and chairs please let me know i have been
looking for one for a girl at church and her kids they had to start over so i
took it apon myself to try to help her out by trying to find her some furniture
please let me know if you still have this thanks and blessings to you and
yours

--If you would consider us for the table and chairs, we would be very
greatful. We are a family of 8 and we have to eat in shifts. We only have 4
chairs and a small table. If you would consider us, then we would have enough
room for everyone and could freecycle what we have the table and 2 chairs,
because we would need to keep 2 to go with the table and 6 chairs that you have.
Thank you for at least considering us.

Well, I almost went out and bought another table and chairs just so I could pick TWO families to get a place to sit to eat. It touches the heart.

I finally contacted the family of 8, and today the father came by with his pick-up truck. Together, he and I loaded the 6 chairs, two extension pieces, and table onto his truck. I hope that tonight that family ate together, perhaps even saying a prayer, and thinking how they can help another family.

In Praise of Giving

Now you might think this post will be about the coming season of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. And you would only be half correct. Yes, this is the season of giving, but my thoughts are directed toward giving in other ways than gift exchanging.

For several years, I have been an active participant in Freecycling. As its website explains, this voluntary network, which now extends all around the world, is made up entirely of " people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills."

I first began Freecycling when I headed into my somewhat involuntary retirement from full time work. I was raring to tackle several projects--including that ever popular CLEAN OUT THE BASEMENT. For fun (?), I began keeping a list of items I have given away. You see--I have only ever offered items on Freecycle--I have never asked for or taken anything. That list has now grown to over 140 items I have given away.

One would think some of the items I have listed would get no takers. But, you'd be surprised how many people want--

• old sleeping bags


• coin holders
  
• a kerosene heater


• an electric typewriter


• old books (I mean OLD)


• children's battery operated games


• Penn State mugs


• stuffed animals


• no longer working used computers


• paper doll books


• a Polaroid camera (!)


• a non-working leaf blower


• a non-working electric heater


• a big Panasonic TV


• too many paper bags

And the list goes on.

Most touching is when I list something, and the eventual taker overflows with gratitude. I gave the bedspread from the single bed that had been in our daughter's bedroom (now the guest room) to a woman who was decorating her daughter's bedroom. She was THRILLED with the bedspread and matching curtains. And there was the man who took our defunct gas grill, saying he had never HAD a gas grill. There was the woman who took an old manual typewriter saying she wanted to write a novel, and thought the typewriter would provide her with just the inspiration she needed. And one unforgettable recipient was a father who got an old Palm that I had--he wanted it to keep track of his children's diabetic medications.

Just yesterday, I listed a vase I had received as a gift many years ago. I never displayed it anywhere in the house, because it simply didn't match my color or decor style. The woman who took it sent me a thank you note, remarking how beautiful it is and how generous I am.

Well, no, I don't feel generous. I just feel as though this kind of sharing makes sense. Why would I keep "stuff" that is really no longer functional for me, when so many people can use these items and use them gratefully? It takes a bit of time for me to list items, and then pick who will get them. Actually, that is the one time I struggle--sometimes so many people have such incredible need.

I am not alone in my giving. There is one man on the local Freecycle list who gets old computers that no longer work. He then refurbishes them, cobbling systems together out of what he has received. He then loads the rebuilt computers with operating software, and puts them on Freecycle for people who have no computers. I have given him an old computer I had that no longer worked.

What a great feeling--giving just for its own sake. Why not check out the Freecycle group in your area. And get that giving feeling.

My War on Weather Forecasters

It was Mark Twain who said that old bromide: everybody always talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Reading the news lately has made me all the more determined that each of us must do something about the weather.

Among the stories that have really caught my attention are three recent ones: the snowless Alps, polar bears and a Canadian ice-shelf breaking away. Each of these stories connects to the overall issue of global climate change, and therein lies my war.

There are many things that any one person can do about global climate change. The first, of course, is to acknowledge that the planet is warming up much faster over the last several decades than at any other point in human history. Of course, over the millions of years the earth has existed, it has gone through periods of extreme heat and extreme cold. Many causes connect to the heating and cooling of the planet. But the emerging scientific consensus is that humans are contributing greatly to the current warming trends which in turn are causing the climate changes we see.

The second thing that one person can do is change her (or his) personal habits. There is a temptation to think that since the little things are so minimal, why bother. But, do bother. For example, we have switched over to almost all fluorescent bulbs in our house. We both drive cars that are reasonably fuel efficient. We don’t yet own a hybrid, which would be even more fuel efficient.

I am trying to raise my awareness of how I consume resources so that I am less consuming and more restoring of the earth’s resources. As my family knows, I am a rabid freecycler—doing everything I can to keep things out of landfills. I have recycled cans, bottles, newspapers, and plastics since before my son was born (and he turns 35 next year!).

So what is left? Changing public attitudes. One of my current bugaboos is that local weather forecasters insist on saying how lovely and wonderful the weather is when it is warm, and how awful it is when it is cool. First of all, I love cold weather. I long for, no—yearn for, snow. This winter has been an absolute bust here in central Pennsylvania. When the temperature these days has been in the mid-50s, weather forecasters say—oh, aren’t we fortunate to have such lovely weather. I shout at the TV—NO! I hate it.

So, I have finally decided I need to take these folks on. I have a theory: when the weather is abnormally warm in the winter, and people hear the weather forecaster say how great that is, they agree and are reinforced in their habits that contribute to global warming. Maybe that’s a stretch—but doesn’t it make a bit of sense. Why change the way you live, freely consuming earth’s resources, when the result is warm weather in the winter?

And just how does one take on weather forecasters? My perhaps feeble way is to fire off emails. Every time I hear a local forecaster say how lovely and warm it is, I send an email. The gist of what I say to them is—no, it is not lovely. It is downright freakish. And long term it is really scary.

I actually had one weather forecaster write back to me. Here’s what he said:
“Because we are meteorologists and not climatologists, climate change is beyond our field of expertise. We have to therefore become journalists when talking about it and must adopt journalistic ethics. We cannot take sides in passionate issues. We are supposed to be apolitical just like news reporters and we are not here to try to sway public opinion on anything. In the realm of climate change, that is an especially good policy because regardless of what you may have read, there is still quite the heated argument in "PhD Land" going on about humanity's artificial effect on global warming (natural global warming has been going on since the last ice age). What about the climatologists who don't publish their experiments which predict global cooling because of fears they'll lose their funding? What about the fact that fuel cells on the scale of every car in the world would be much, much worse for us because water vapor eats carbon dioxide's lunch when it comes to absorbing UV radiation? Americans are not getting all angles to this story. How could we go on-air all the time without differing opinion? Meantime, general consensus is that the current weather is nice. We can sort of reflect that mood, but we cannot flat out root for or against types of weather, either.”

Mostly, the responses I get back are “thank you for contacting us.” But the above comment really struck me. On the one hand, he was saying he can’t take sides, and then on the other hand he takes sides!

So, I have declared war on the weather forecasters. I will keep writing to them, urging them to recognize the role they play in influencing people’s perceptions of the weather.

And I have decided to begin to use a new response when people say to me: isn’t this weather wonderful? I am going to say—no, it’s freakish. And do you really want to live in a world without polar bears?

In Praise of Writing

One of the things I like to do best is organize. I just love to start cleaning out closets, drawers, shelves, whatever, wherever "stuff" is stored. This has been a week for cleaning out. Today it was the kitchen, but yesterday it was the study closet.

I have accumulated several generations of purses and decided it was time to freecycle a half of dozen. So, prudent person that I am, I first went through each purse looking in all the nooks and crannies for left-over whatevers. Mostly cough drops or emery boards. But, in one purse--EUREKA--I found my Cross fountain pen that I had not been able to locate for years--I mean literally years.

Now, I love writing with a fountain pen. Oh, sure, I get blue ink all over my fingers. My pens, regardless of brand, never fail to leak on me. I take it as a sign of reciprocated love. There is something about holding a fountain pen, and writing with it. No other writing instrument adapts so thoroughly to the writer holding it. If you own a fountain pen, you know that you alone are the writer who can write with that pen.

Have you ever tried writing with someone else's fountain pen? If she has owned it for a while, you will find you cannot write well with that pen. The angle of writing, the pressure applied to the nib, all combine to shape the nib in such a way that the owner is the one who can coax the fountain pen to write.
All of which leads me to write in praise of writing. Not just the act of writing, not just capturing one's thoughts with writing, but the actual method of writing--thank goodness for fountain pens. Especially found ones!
------
P.S. note the link on "stuff"--George Carlin does an absolutely brilliant routine on stuff--how we tend to collect stuff; how we can't live without our stuff; and how we have this pathological need to take our stuff with us. Of course, fountain pens do NOT fit into the category of stuff.