Throw It Away!
How many of us remember this comment, or something similar? Finish all of that food on your plate. There are kids starving all over the world. I heard it a few times. If you are of my generation (born in the 60’s), your parents grew up in the post-depression era. They grew up hearing about the bread lines and the Hoovervilles, the children who didn’t go to school but worked just in order to put food in their bellies. And many of us in my generation were heirs to the seemingly-stingy upbringing. I remember my mother telling me that money doesn’t grow on trees when I so badly wanted a pair of Jordache or Sassoon jeans.
And in the 80’s, people were so comfortable. Fittingly, those years became known as the Me Decade. Our culture coined new terms to name the financial creatures that evolved at that time. Among them: Yuppies (young upwardly-mobile professionals) and Dinks (double income / no kids). Now, fourteen years into the new millennium, things are different. But that is a whole other essay.
Yuppies and Dinks crawled out of the primordial soup of the 80’s. Never before had there been a generation with this unique combination of circumstances: We were raised on the save it, you may need it someday philosophies of our parents. We were taught to spot a bargain and seize the opportunity. We were living in a season of financial prosperity. And there were an unprecedented amount of manufacturers all over the world who were waiting in line to collect. We became a culture of acquisition. Things, things, things, and more things.
For ages, it was a matter of survival to teach ones offspring to save and to be miserly. The concept worked in times of shortages. Whether food or money, saving made sense. But here is a novel idea that most people have not yet considered, and it would make our grandparents roll over in their graves. We are probably the first generation in history who must teach our children to throw things away! If you don’t think that disposing of things is a necessary skill, Google hoarders or hoarding.
Doing it for them is not the same thing as teaching them to willingly part with things. It is a skill set to be able to identify an object as no longer useful, make the decision to part with it, and do so! And it is important to teach our kids that too many things have a way of clogging up one’s life. Try this experiment. Clear off a coffee table or some other space in your home. Find one or two lovely objects or fun objects and place them in the space. Take a picture. Then find 15 or 20 lovely or fun objects and place them in the space. Take a picture. Place the pictures side-by-side and ask each family member which picture makes them feel better. I would be interested in hearing the results.
Happy purging! Remember, Santa can’t bring anything new until some of the old stuff is thrown away or given away!
And in the 80’s, people were so comfortable. Fittingly, those years became known as the Me Decade. Our culture coined new terms to name the financial creatures that evolved at that time. Among them: Yuppies (young upwardly-mobile professionals) and Dinks (double income / no kids). Now, fourteen years into the new millennium, things are different. But that is a whole other essay.
Yuppies and Dinks crawled out of the primordial soup of the 80’s. Never before had there been a generation with this unique combination of circumstances: We were raised on the save it, you may need it someday philosophies of our parents. We were taught to spot a bargain and seize the opportunity. We were living in a season of financial prosperity. And there were an unprecedented amount of manufacturers all over the world who were waiting in line to collect. We became a culture of acquisition. Things, things, things, and more things.
For ages, it was a matter of survival to teach ones offspring to save and to be miserly. The concept worked in times of shortages. Whether food or money, saving made sense. But here is a novel idea that most people have not yet considered, and it would make our grandparents roll over in their graves. We are probably the first generation in history who must teach our children to throw things away! If you don’t think that disposing of things is a necessary skill, Google hoarders or hoarding.
Doing it for them is not the same thing as teaching them to willingly part with things. It is a skill set to be able to identify an object as no longer useful, make the decision to part with it, and do so! And it is important to teach our kids that too many things have a way of clogging up one’s life. Try this experiment. Clear off a coffee table or some other space in your home. Find one or two lovely objects or fun objects and place them in the space. Take a picture. Then find 15 or 20 lovely or fun objects and place them in the space. Take a picture. Place the pictures side-by-side and ask each family member which picture makes them feel better. I would be interested in hearing the results.
Happy purging! Remember, Santa can’t bring anything new until some of the old stuff is thrown away or given away!
