It will take a miracle closely akin to parting the Red Sea to make a meaningful difference in our garage. The problem is that each of us have stuff that is “off limits” for tossing. Actually, in my defense, she’s got a lot more treasure out there than I do. It falls into the category of one man’s trash is the General’s treasure. If I thought for a minute that our working together in the garage would be something other than a trigger for frustration, I’d be all over it. I’d have to be delusional to think there is an easy way out of the mess.
A lot of the clutter in our garage is stuff that needs to be shredded. We fell heir to a lot of files of “this and that” the General’s mother left behind a little over a year ago. Of course, the General will tell you my dad has been on the other side of eternity for twelve years and I’ve still got a small filing cabinet of stuff that he held onto forever. It would take a commercial shredder to even begin to make a dent.
I fondly remember back in the good old days where living in the country included access to a “burn barrel”. Long story short – that is what we most need. It would be a simple process to toss most of it in a burn barrel and strike a match. The very thought puts a smile on my face.
For starters, it isn’t going to happen. The General is tossing nothing without first reading it. Long story short, we are at an impasse. We need the burn barrel and for her to be gone for two hours. I could make an appreciable difference. Trust me, we’d never miss it! On the other hand, did I mention there is nothing more unsightly than having a burn barrel on your property? It isn’t going to happen!
At some level, I need to trash most of the stuff I’ve got filed away in six filing cabinets in our garage. I don’t part with paper easily. Like I said, “I collect stories”. From time to time, I look in filing cabinets and pull out stuff with the intent of moving it over to the trash container. I generally sort through it and put it all back in the filing cabinet where I found it.
Late yesterday afternoon, I was looking in my filing cabinet for something and noticed reference to an article from the book “Man’s Search For Meaning”. Rollo May, the author, is a psychiatrist. He writes: “The clearest picture of the empty life is he suburban man, who gets up at the same hour every week day morning, takes the same train to work in the city, performs the same tasks in the office, lunches at the same places, leaves the same tip for the waitress each day, comes home on the same train each night and has 2.3 children. He goes to church every Christmas and Easter and moves through a routine mechanical existence year after year until he finally retires at 65 and very soon thereafter, dies of heart failure. May adds, I’ve always had the suspicion, however, that he dies of boredom”.
So how do we do it differently? How do we get out of the rut we are in and become more adventuresome? Most of us need to discover the road less traveled and fill our lives with a refreshing variation from same old, same old.
Earlier in the week, the General and I were visiting with friends who moved here from Lake Jackson, TX. They mentioned in passing that Lake Jackson is basically a model community developed by Dow Chemical Plant. One of the sons of the founder is an architect. He laid out the model community and had the privilege of naming the streets.
If you want to go down the road less traveled, you might want to travel to Lake Jackson and see how difficult it is to find your way around. How would you like to live on a street named “No Way”. Actually, I’m not sure Lake Jackson has one, but they have every other variation.
There is the intersection of “This Way” and “That Way”. I’m not making this up. It really is true. Can you imagine? The street behind one of the churches is named “His Way”. In addition, there is “Any Way”, “Parking Way”, “Circle Way” and “Winding Way”.
My challenge for you today is one that I’m taking for myself. It is simply to color outside the lines and do it differently. I don’t think I’m at risk of dying from boredom, but variation is the spice of life.
All My Best!
Don