What to keep and what to throw away

Driving home last night I spotted a lonely heap of outdated brass fixtures sitting by the side of the road and had to laugh. (I even stopped to take this picture, because now I think of stories in everything I do.) That exact chandelier lives under the sink in my basement.  I am saving it for some reason.  It used to be that every home had this particular brass, Williamsburg-style light fixture.  No more.  Very passe.  Everything is brush nickel, pewter, various shades of gray.  I wonder what this says about these times.

Brass may have lost some of its luster, but does it deserve to go out on the curb?

What do we save?  What do we throw away?  What do we repurpose?
I could paint this chandelier with some funky chalk paint.  It has nice lines.
I pull the fixture from its nonsensical hiding place and examine it.  The wires are still intact.  The brass is a little cheap, so it won't polish very well.

These same assessments I make about my lesson plans, about my writing, about my reading, about my relationships - everyday. 
What to keep, what to throw away, what to revise and repurpose?





Comments

  1. aggiekeslerMarch 12, 2019 at 6:46 AM

    Interesting perspective and questions...

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 12, 2019 at 8:00 AM

    I love the analogy and the questions. I ask them of myself regularly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Adrienne G.March 12, 2019 at 8:38 AM

    In my neighborhood in Portland, people put things out on the curb all the time. I've put out my share and taken my share. One man's trash...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Terje March 12, 2019 at 12:36 PM

    Hmm. An interesting find. Good questions to ask. I think I need to ask these questions more often both at home and at work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SallyMarch 12, 2019 at 5:59 PM

    My 2 favorite parts of your slice - the ending questions: What to keep, what to throw away, what to revise and repurpose? You remind that it applies to the light fixtures but also MANY more topics. So true. And the line: (I even stopped to take this picture, because now I think of stories in everything I do.) This is a TRUE sign of a slicer!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. LeahMarch 12, 2019 at 7:32 PM

    Great idea. Don't throw it away--just give it a coat of chalk paint! Works like a charm.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownMarch 13, 2019 at 2:53 AM

    I love how you are keeping the same type of light fixture in your basement right now!! Maybe you are saving the fixture because it only takes a can of high gloss, spray paint to transform the dated lights into what the cool kids want. (See my Running Memories: An Interlude)

    ReplyDelete

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