Simplicity’s Missing Link

Posted on February 18, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Clutter,Simplification

Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

$Photo by P/\UL$ It seems to me that we are missing a piece of the big picture in the living of our lives. I had reason to drive past our regional landfill this past weekend, and saw the garbage trucks snaking their way up the big mound to dump their loads. In this area we actually have a city park that is built on an old dump, called “Mount Trashmore”. I also know of a ski hill in another (flat) state built out of a garbage pile.

We are missing a vital link in the daily business of living in not taking into account our garbage. When my garbage gets put into the waste truck, I never think about where it is going to land next. And as a consequence of that, I rarely think twice about putting things into the garbage.

Granted, with my efforts at simplification, our household garbage output has gone down. We reuse what we can, recycle everything we can, and re-purpose items instead of buying specialties. We also have minimized our purchases. But still, a few miles from where I live, the mound of garbage keeps growing.

Perhaps we would all be willing to simplify our lives if we saw the garbage we create as being part of the world we inhabit and part of our life cycle. As long as we do not see the connection between our stuff and the garbage, we will continue to generate garbage at an alarming rate.

I also believe that once we see the garbage as part of our world, we will be able to change the way things are used and manufactured. Things would be built to last and be repaired, as opposed to thrown out and replaced.

What do you think?

Photo by P/\UL