Oooh, I really upset my landlady’s son the other day. I asked him what he was going to do with the junk car in the back yard. He told me that, in fact, it was a collectible car and a valuable investment. He just needs to do some work on it and it can be sold for at least $10,000.00.
Well that’s great. It has monetary value, but here’s the thing: It’s been sitting there gathering dust and taking up space for a year and a half. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s junk. I don’t care if something is worth a million dollars. If it’s not being used, can’t be eaten or worn or read, doesn’t have sentimental or artistic value, and/or doesn’t enhance your life in some significant way, it’s worthless.
People who stuff their life full of inanimate objects because they might be worth something someday make me crazy. And it seems that the likelihood of someone actually making the effort to go out and sell a possession is inversely proportionate to the number of possessions that person has. So all they’re doing is taking up space, spending money that could be better utilized elsewhere, and paying to heat, cool, house and store mounds and mounds of useless flotsam and jetsam.
We are raised to look at the monetary value of things, rather than the utility value and the sentimental value. I think that’s a pity. If we viewed things through a different lens, our attics, closets and garages would look a lot different.
[Image credit: farhanadhalla.com ]
The View from a Drawbridge 