Is That A Want Or A Need? Don’t Ask Such a Silly Question! It’s A Book For Crying Out Loud!
I was having a conversation with a friend today regarding how much “stuff” is too much “stuff”. It might be part of the aging process. I heard my own mother and grandmother say on several occasions that they were cleaning out so there wouldn’t be so much for “you kids to go through” after they were gone. Maybe sitting back and evaluating the material items you have accumulated over the course of your life is a natural progression on this journey. My friend and I are about the same age, so maybe we are looking at things with the same perspective. .
I recently had the opportunity to cull through a lot of things that I thought I absolutely had to have at the moment I purchased them. What I found was that most of those things were not needed at all. They had merely been things I wanted but didn’t really need. It all reminded me of something I used to say to my young children when I was trying to teach them to be financially responsible with their money. “Is this thing you want to buy a NEED or a WANT?” Clearly over the past few years I had spent a lot of money on things I didn’t really need. Because when it came time to take stock of my “stuff” I realized most of what I had wasn’t important to me.
Himalayan salt lamps. Just to throw a random item out there. I had two. Swear to the treetops I needed those! The one that sat on the mantle in the the living room, giving off a soft glow at night, kind of had a purpose, made it easier for houseguests staying in the spare bedroom to find their way to the bathroom in the middle of the night! The wire basket with a lightbulb in it, full of chunks of the pink salts. That looked really cool on the corner of my desk! But I’m not sure it was doing anything else beyond that. I mean the online theories tell you these salt lamps purify the air and remove negativity. I can tell you I have now lived without any Himalayan salt lamps for five months and I’ve noticed no difference in my positive outlook on life!
Bath poofs are another. You know what I’m talking about, those nylon balls of fluff that you squirt body wash on in the shower. Now there’s an item that one could say really does have a purpose. Most certainly falls into the need category for some people. What I found when going through my bathroom closet was that I must have hit the motherlode of a sale, because I had a bag of 20 of them stuffed into that closet! Twenty!!! Why? I can’t even remember the last time I used body wash! When it really comes down to it, I’m a bar of soap and a washcloth girl. So a well intentioned need, wasn’t really that after all. It turned out bath poofs were nothing more then a “I’m a body wash kind of girl” want that never materialized.
My friend and I were having this discussion on stuff as we left a really wonderful gift shop. Honest to goodness the things in that shop were the cutest ever and for about half a moment I thought of dropping some serious money to buy up all of that cuteness and take it home with me. I mean after all, the salt lamps, bath poofs, as well a many other things, are gone, I’ve got room to start over!! Thankfully though I did not buy a single bit of all of that cute “stuff”. It is after all, just “stuff”, and when you sit down and really have to make a take it or leave it decision on your “stuff”, you find that you really don’t need much of it at all.
Unless it’s a book. Or in my case, books! It seems that the culling of “stuff” didn’t exactly extend to books in my life. Boxes of books actually! I could not part with books that I read almost thirty years ago, have not opened since, but you know I might! I just might actually want to read that book one more time before I die, so that book was kept. As were books I bought five or ten years ago and still have not read, but you know, I might! I wasn’t going to part with a book I haven’t read yet! That would be a waste! It became quickly apparent to me that, at least in my life, there is “stuff” and then there are books.
A want might be a Himalayan Pink Salt Lamp or a teal colored ball of nylon to wash with, but a need was a book! Books are most definitely a need because within their pages you can go anywhere, become anyone, do anything! There cannot be a greater vehicle for making your life magical then a book. Books are magic. I’ve learned first hand that one book in particular was so magical that it had the power to change my life. Yes that’s a shameless plug for The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler but it’s also the truth. Literally one book changed my life. For me at least, books will always be a NEED and never a WANT.
Now the raven lamp is another story…… I said I was working on this “stuff” thing, I didn’t say I had mastered it yet!
