Saturday, May 05, 2007
Things
I’ve been thinking a lot about Things lately. Physical things. Material possessions. How you don’t possess things; they possess you.
The genesis of all this thinking is my new home. I’m spending endless hours and huge amounts of mental and physical energy fixing up the place—removing overgrown shrubs, planting trees, moving the pool equipment to a better location, acquiring new furniture, thinking about remodeling, big or small. The last few days (and the next several) will be spent using most of my free time to give a thorough cleaning and polishing to a heavy-duty stove I picked up cheap on Craigslist.
It’s easy to say the stove is about saving money, satisfying my wife’s love for great cooking equipment, looking forward to years of future meals and family time. At the same time, the stove owns me. I’m the one up to my elbows in chemicals, sticky with grease, reaching into corners with a toothbrush, slicing knuckles on sharp metal corners. I’ve got to move a gas line and re-route 220V electical for this stove.
Stoveless, I’d have time to swim.
Poolless, I’d have time to garden.
Gardenless, I’d have time to read.
Bookless, I would be free.
Strange how truer words were never sung: Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.