Carol Northcut | Wednesday, 27 July 2022
The junk!! Everyone should have to pickup and move thousands of miles away every few years. Not only that, they should have to pay a mover where every box is an additional cost. Brutally purge, recycle everything you can, have a yard sale (neighborhood junk exchange), donate things others can use, give family mementos to other family members, pare down what you thought you’d already pared down.
It’s so easy to procrastinate making the decision of what to keep and what to trash when you live in one place a while. It’s easyto retain it with the justification of “What if I need it later?” But Later comes and goes and it has gone unused for years. For instance, think about fly tying materials. On second thought, don’t. Bad example. That is sanctified hoarding collecting.Rather, think about the extra ferrule wax, or the tube of lip balm that has gone rancid in your gear bag. Those are very small examples but multiplied by hundreds of items it adds up.
Stuff doesn’t ground us; it weighs us down. Fishing grounds us but having to maintain and organize superfluous stuff keeps us from fishing. Hang on to what you need. Hang onto things you already have that make life easier or a bit more comfortable. Hang on to art if it makes you feel good when you look at it. I’ll try to keep in mind the words that I’ve written here as we continue to pack and purge over the next two weeks, not only because the tendency to collect and keep “just in case” is a challenging mindset to overcome, but also because the hoarder’s mantra scolds us “Don’t be wasteful. You don’t want to have to buy it again.”
Today my sister was driving on a highway in Arizona. She was behind an ambulance that was taking a patient to the hospital. Suddenly the ambulance’s drivetrain broke off and a piece of it flew through my sister’s windshield, striking her in the forehead. She was driven off in another ambulance. Fortunately, she has a mild concussion but nothing worse, and she only needed a few stitches. Had the metal struck her two inches lower, she would have been blinded. Had the metal piece been bigger, she likely would have been killed. It’s a stark reminder of how life can end at any moment. The point? Don’t spend your time collecting and maintaining stuff. Spend it in nature. Plant a garden. Spend time with your family, except the annoying drunk uncle. Go fishing.