Hitchhiker’s bLog: 2019.10.15 Rummage, Rummage, Everywhere…

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody’s got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn’t want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you’re saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That’s what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get…more stuff!

George Carlin

This week is Rummage Sale at the church. Twice a year people rummage through their closets, basements, and garages sorting through STUFF deciding what can stay and what can go. It always amazes me how much STUFF arrives at he church from Sunday afternoon through Tuesday! It also amuses me to see how much of this STUFF is purchased by people looking for more STUFF, even though they have donated stuff.

I am not immune to this “STUFF syndrome.” Sunday I dropped off some STUFF that will be on the tables at the Rummage sale. And as always Jenise and I will be looking through other people’s STUFF because we also like to collect STUFF. It’s like some sort of exchange…stuff for stuff.

There will be amazing array of STUFF that will be on display in the building. (from here on in I will call it “rummage”) From one end of the building to the other, there is a smorgasbord of rummage from old McDonald’s collectible drinking glasses (my favorite was always Mayor Mccheese because I liked the name) to pilsner glasses to fine crystal wine glasses. There is a spectacular array of broken toys, cassette tapes, unwearable shoes, and more costume jewelry than you can shake a stick at. And you cannot imagine the mountains of clothing!

Then there is the room at the end of the building called “rummage Plus.” This is the room full of rummage that the ladies have deemed to good to mingle with the rest of the population. These get special pricing because they are in very good shape, sometimes even new with tags still on, or high end quality. Sometimes you will find expensive suits or prom gowns, or maybe even leather coats and jackets.

It begs the question: Do we have too much? I mean if we have so much to give away, does that mean we spend way to much filling our house with things we really don’t need because after a while they are devalued in our life enough to just give away.

Not long ago I heard a talk on “fast fashion.” The speaker spoke about how there used to be four distinct seasons in a retail year for clothing, but now the clothing turns over ever couple of weeks. This means we have at least 24 seasons vs. 4 seasons, or 8 times the number we used to be satisfied with.

She also said we would hold onto clothing longer. In the 19th century, only a wealthy woman would have five or six really dressy dresses and she would keep them for many years. Average women might have one. Yet now the average young lady has purchased several formal and semi-formal dresses by the time they graduate high school that they will only wear once. (Some of those dresses end up at the rummage sale).

Now we are consumerists all the time, and its getting worse because we do not have to get in the car and go to the store. Now we just ave to sit on the couch and pick up our phone………

Are we filling a void?

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Matthew 16.26 esv