Pruning the Mountain of Things

Junk is the enemy.

For a few weeks now it's been my goal to start tossing again. The last few days it's been hot and the heavy air adds to my feeling of being closed in on every side by needless stuff. But making the time to really attack the mountain in any disciplined fashion is really quite hard. I would much rather read or learn a tune or meet friends or sleep. But I know that parting with even a small pile of clothes or other unnecessary items will ultimately help ease the burden of being surrounded by junk.

Compared to others, I really don't have all that much and so the pruning should be relatively easy. I'm not using almost any of the storage space above my garage -- a few weeks ago I finally broke down and put a couple of small boxes up there, which I will probably forget when I eventually move away. I have one really small TV which isn't on much, and a collection of DVDs that consists mostly of family-friendly viewing, including a few concert and instructional cds. I have a piano -- my mother's Steinway upright, badly in need of a tuning. I have furniture, including an old chair that came from my room at my mother's house, and which my son refuses to allow me to part with. I have sole custody of three string instruments and another that is on temporary loan. I have a tons of cds and books, a washer and dryer, bikes, garden stuff, a growing collection of those cool fold-out camp chairs (we use them all the time) and a gigantic mound of stuff from my mother's house that is of little value other than the sentimentality of it.

I'm really at a place where I want to right-size. Most of what needs to go amounts to small and rarely-used items that keep getting shuffled aside, or papers that I'm holding onto for no truly good reason. I feel cluttered and want to just put the clutter out.

I've also been more careful in the last year about what I bring into the house. We eat better quality food of higher nutritional value. We go to a concert or a museum instead of shopping; I can buy laundry detergent at 9:30 on a Tuesday night when my kids are at dad's. The children have whatever they need to read or wear, and probably will be taking music lessons soon. Even the most recent birthday present my daughter and I bought for a little friend of hers bears the mark of my increasing practicality -- a Disney Princess hooded towel set, wrapped in a pink wicker basket that the birthday girl can use for storing something in her room.

I hear all the time about the acquisition habits of others. While I like my stuff, and wouldn't mind having a few things like new carpet or floors, a wine cooler, a new coffee pot, or a nice Gibson F-5, the majority of stuff I hear people investing in is just junk. Sure I enjoy sitting on my butt once in a while and watching a movie. I like it better to go with friends or my kids to see a movie and then hang out afterwards. Will having a home theatre system make my life easier, the quality of life for my children better? Will it deepen my understanding of humanity or make me a better musician or person to have a bigger tv or video games to go with it? Will it make me smarter, or more interesting to the people I deal with all over the country? I've lived without these things for almost five years, and I don't know where I would get the time to waste if I had them.

One good investment I made recently was last night's Duhks show at The Kent Stage. This is a collection of formidable young musicians who are relatively fearless about how far their musicianship and creativity can take them. And the experience of sharing the evening of incredible live music with my kids was pretty cool. This tune, Mountains of Things, is one you're likely familiar with if you are a Tracy Chapman fan. I love the Duhks take on it and the message always hits home for me.

Off to rest so I can start moving my mountain tomorrow.