Usable Typewriters and Old TVs

Today I helped out a "resale" shop. It is one that uses its money to help within the community in various ways. Think Salvation Army, but Catholic-ish.

We helped discard over-stock inventory. This consisted of of taking "junk" to the dump and discarding it. We took a bunch of stuff, but the thing that stuck out to me, in a negative way, were the TVs and the Typewriters.

Once a proud lot

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It broke my heart. As someone who doesn't have a TV right now, I wasn't jealous, but I just couldn't believe that we were throwing these TVs out. They were TVs that might not have worked 100% or were damaged enough that the others that the shop had in "stock" were more than adequate. This store is sort of the last resort for such items, so it isn't that they were being wasteful, they were in fact doing all they could to help find new homes for these things.

All that being said, I just found it so disheartening how wasteful and materialistic our culture is. TVs and Typewriters, things that once cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars being thrown in the same pile with broken desks and old mattresses. Sic Transit Gloria... 


I don't really have much of a point here without sounding sentimental and foolish. So, yeah, I guess the takeaway is... cherish things. Make what is old, new again. Not just for the sake of nostalgia, but for the sake of reconnecting with what once gave you a passion for something. The labor, the effort, the process.

Our lives, and especially our faith is a process... not an event. Live it accordingly. In all respects.

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