Stumbling All Night on the Bones of the Dead

Photo courtesy Flickr

That’s a literary quote, but I can’t cite the source. It’s a good housekeeping line, though. Downsizing in place is an exercise in self-examination when I have the house to myself for a week. Anything that’s in inventory I carry on my back, and this little MacBook has me spoiled rotten. It, a titanium coffee pot from the hiking co-op, and a good down sleeping bag pretty much cover the necessities.

What I look for in possessions and in culture is vitality and rigor. Just as Email has lopped prose out of conversation, high-tech has lopped stupid mass out of inventory. A musician told me that if he hasn’t used something in three days, he gets rid of it. That seemed a little dire at the time, but the closer I get to that model, the more room there is for life in my life.

Deciding to let something go is not nearly as difficult as deciding what to do next. Some years ago, the “World of Interiors” ran an article featuring a handful of black and white photographs that had been retrieved from a waste bin in London. They recorded amazing pre-war party costumes from circles of privilege. The lesson I took from the article was not to evaluate my archive by myself. A local ethnic heritage museum and my college library value relics enough to look after them, and I am grateful for their stewardship.

Anything that can easily be replaced on the current market goes into the alley. Casual donations just melt away as the neighbors walk past. Deciding whether something is worth the carbon load of shipping to a relative can be problematic. I dithered for weeks about some things, but decided the dithering itself wastes carbon budget and enough was enough, so off things went.

Living without a car makes this sort of thing easier, because I’m not trucking back and forth to thrift shops. A major shipper maintains a storefront a few blocks away, and its concierge and packing services are such a convenience, I classify the expense as transportation.

As for the rest, the heir and the cousins get to decide.

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