Because You Never Know

Earth Day just passed, and for a guy who writes frequently about the environment, even as far as to cast it in a religious light, I didn’t do too bloody much.  I probably spent more time on the computer than usual (a good two hours or more writing ‘Aspirations’ as a matter of fact).  I had my 48 inch flat screen on with playoff hockey happening, although I wasn’t paying much attention to it.  Half my house’s lights were probably on.  Not to mention, I had a fire going, but never checked to see if I had turned the heat down accordingly.  Basically, I failed at being an ambassador of good will to the only deity I would openly claim to worship.  Everybody lapses from their good intentions once in a while, I suppose. 

While I still fill up my van with expensive and polluting petrol, eat fast food wrapped in excessive packaging, and clearly use too much power in my own home, there are still a few things I do for which I can still lay claim as a good environmentally savvy citizen.  I keep things.  I’ve written about this before, but this time I’m making a claim for other reasons to keep stuff/junk.  I don’t automatically throw things away simply because they currently don’t’ work or I don’t need them.  I take a minute to step back and look at whatever the item is and see if there might be a useful item, for either myself or someone I know (or might meet in the near or not so near future, maybe).

Here are some examples of things I have kept, for better or worse.  You can decide if it was wise to do so or not:

·         I have no less than four old VCRs in my cave right now.  One of them works; I bought it at Value Village for $5.99—on purpose—so I could watch my old VHS cassettes of music videos from the 80s and 90s.  I also have Wrestlemania VI, some store-bought music videos, and even some old tapes of the Warner Brothers cartoon Histeria!, which has never been issued on DVD.  I watch them all the time.  I have the VHS tape from when I was a kid that has the televised broadcasts of the original Star Wars trilogy.  I like watching that, because some of the old commercials are still there.  What do I do with the other VCR’s?  I tore two of them apart to use the insides to build dioramas for my Star Wars collection.  Old circuit boards and wires look a lot like the futuristic technology in the Hoth base.  I also have my first VDV player, which no longer works, a couple old phones, and a set of broken walkie-talkies.  I planned to bring those to Dad to look at; he’s good at fixing electronics, so maybe he can get them to work again.  Since I only see him a few times a year, I doubt I’ll ever do it. 

·         I have been saving covers of various sizes for years now.  Pop bottle tops, milk bottle covers, and even coffee tin covers are organized in bags and containers, also in my cave.  I originally started keeping milk bottle covers to use as checkers, since they are about the right size, and in an afternoon’s work, you can build or paint a checkerboard out of plywood or craft board easily enough.  Years ago, I saved the covers from jugs of vegetable oil from KFC because I thought they would make excellent checkers in a large-scale checker board.  I eventually built it, and it looks pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.  I saved enough covers to make a complete set of checkers, and a handful of extras for replacements if need be.  Because you never know.  That’s basically the mantra for this writing piece.  I branched out after this successful endeavor to saving covers of all shapes and colours for more checker boards that I didn’t get around to making.  I made one for Mom for her birthday last year, and had enough covers to give her four colours:  brown, red, blue and white.  I keep the rest because, the teacher that I am, I see value in them as potentially math manipulatives, like for counting or multiplying.  Heck, I can use them whenever my SmartBoard finally dies.

·         I like to think that I am always looking out for things my friends might be interested in keeping.  I held on to a Budweiser bottle with the Carolina Hurricanes NHL team logo on it because a friend of mine supports that particular team, and I immediately thought “Hey, the Hurricanes logo doesn’t appear on merchandise that often, maybe he’ll want it… and say, he loves Budweiser too, this one’s a double-score!”  I gave it to him, and he seemed happy, but maybe it was more that I thought of him rather than that he got said bottle.  I have learned over the years that other people don’t always yearn for things like I do.  It’s hard to get your head around not being a collector when you are a collector.

·         I have no less than five Scrabble boards.  I never play Scrabble.  Again, I’ll play the teacher card on this one; I have run Scrabble in a club before, and multiple sets are really handy in such instances.  I never paid more than three dollars for one, so I’ve not spent much on them.  It’s easier to justify hoarding things when you can say “It was on sale”.  Lately, I’ve had my eyes open to actually pick up a few more, but for a very good reason.  I am thinking about the end of the school year, which is fast approaching, and since I ran Scrabble this year, plus played Scrabble-like games on the SmartBoard, and even Math Scrabble (yes, it exists, and I own it), I thought about a neat craft I could make for my kids.  Since I have only 18 of them, I thought that I could use Scrabble letters to spell out their names, and glue them onto those little shelf-thingies you set the letters on.  They could each have their own name plate, and I would only spend a few dollars, not to mention it would be a hand-made, personalized gift by which they can remember me.  I would like to keep one Scrabble set intact, but the others I can justify sacrificing for what I think is a worthy project.  9-year old Brandon would have loved this.  Will 18 other 9-year olds?

·         If you ever find yourself wanting a copy of Wuthering Heights, Gulliver’s Travels, The Time Machine, Edgar Allen Poe’s works, Bread and Molasses, or the Hardy Boys’ first book (The Tower Treasure), you need look no further.  I have at least two of each of these.  I have King Lear in soft cover, even though I also own a nice hardcover copy of the Complete Shakespeare.  Fact is, I have a pile of books I know I will never read again.  I don’t have time to read much as is, let alone reread.  I have been leaning towards the classics lately, so maybe a Kindle or Kobo is in my future.  If it’s in the public domain, it’s probably free, right?  I won’t part with Bread and Molasses though.  I want a set of five or six of those, because I would love to use them in Literature Circles in a future class I teach.  The future is the best reason of all to keep things, because no one can tell you with certainty you’re wrong about it.

Maybe someday I’ll write a sequel to this entry, with other items I couldn’t bear to part with the subjects of public scrutiny.  There’s no telling what treasures I will come across, or what detritus I’ll rescue from the landfill in the interest of saving the Earth from the scourge that manufactured it.  It saddens me to get rid of things, but if something I have held on to finds a purpose, or makes somebody happy, then I have not only helped the environment just a little bit, but maybe made someone’s day too.  If you like church stuff, then you might appreciate what I’m trying to do here.  Helping people and helping the world in which we live is really what it’s all about.  Compulsively keeping things, of course, has nothing to do with it.