My husband and I live in a 2-story home on a couple of acres of ground. No McMansion, it's plenty big, still modest by some standards; for example, Bill and Melinda Gates would probably use it as a dollhouse. It's got three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a family room, a living room, an attic and a basement. There's also a screened porch and a deck with a hot tub. Here's the rub: Mitch travels frequently for his profession, and try as I might, I can only be in one room at a time. Even worse, all those rooms are full of stuff.
Many people spend a lifetime striving for more, right up until they wish they had less. I see this often in my consignment shop, where seniors who are "downsizing" seek to shed their once-valued possessions. "My kids don't want it," they complain. Or else, after Mom and Dad are gone--either to the Great Beyond or just to Assisted Living--those same kids haul in the stuff, now downgraded to junk, and ask us to "get rid of it at any price." Seeing this ritual up close makes me nervous: Will my own son one day simply trash everything I leave behind? Probably. That realization makes it hard to go shopping. But what if I live to be 95? The next 30 years could be bleak...
HOORAY!!!! STOP SHOPPING!!!!!
ReplyDeleteread an article today -- I think in the WSJ but maybe the Times -- about how folks our age are moving into college-style apartments . .. Group housing, in college towns . . . those were the days they were happiest . . . and they find they are happier when they move back there . . .
ReplyDeleteSo much less stuff.
PS I LOVE your writing. More than your writing . . .your thinking. Last two sentences were powerful and profound . . . crystallized the problem . . .
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother never had a winter coat all the time I knew her because she thought it would be a waste to buy a new one after she turned 65. She lived to be 99.