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So apparently, coffee from Texas is the shit, yes?
While I completely agree with this sentiment. On the flipside, I’ve seen it in people who grew up poor that they really want to save things and preserve them for longer use even if it causes temporary inconvenience. I think it might be hard to get out of this mindset
Sucks about getting old and dying. All the things you found interesting and brought you joy are often meaningless to your kids or the next generation. I don’t mean hoarding stupid “collectibles”, but things like maybe the photography you got good at, the nice piece of local art you picked up while traveling, etc.
I think that those things are only meaningless because the parents/grandparents didn’t or couldn’t engage with the next generation about it. Heirlooms, trinkets, and tchotchkes have to be imbued with stories and sentiment otherwise they’re just junk.
20th hyper-consumerism sold the idea that you could buy sentimentality and proceeded to replace things that were valuable because of their unique stories with things that were valuable because of “the collectible market.” There’s a big difference between “this Coke sign was in your great-great-grandpa’s soda fountain” and “this Coke sign is valued at $100.” Likewise, a box of old family photos fails to have value when you can’t identify the people in the photos and the relative you inherited them from didn’t bother taking the time.
No! Use Up the Photographs!!
My ex had brought me whiskey coffee from her trip to Scotland. I decided to save it for a special occasion, and then it expired and I had to throw it. Never again.
Fun fact: there’s marginalia collectors, people who collect pieces of media which contain handwritten scribbles and notes on them
Preach.
My girlfriend does this (or at least used to do this) all the time.
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When she was young, she was gifted a bunch of hand-embroidered clothes of the very traditional ‘old country’ style. At the time, she literally thought she wasn’t good enough to wear them (she’s a bit of a tomboy) and saved them away for later. By the time she finally found them again, safely packed away decades later, her style had evolved and she didn’t even like that old-fashioned stuff anymore, and she had to just get rid of it because she knew she’d never even want to wear it.
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Some time ago when she was poor and MP3 players were fairly expensive, she’d been using a really old gnarly and busted one every day. For her birthday, her brother got her a fancy new one with a lot more storage and a screen, really the latest and greatest. But she was afraid of losing it or breaking it, so she never took it anywhere and never used it. She kept using the old one. The new one sat on a shelf, safe in its original factory box for years and years. Nowadays, it’s completely obsolete and pointless because she can just play music from her phone. She never even loaded any music on it.
Sometimes (even often, maybe?) saving nice things for later just ends in the tragedy of those nice things never being enjoyed at all. She would have been better off if she wore and ultimately wore out and ruined those fancy clothes. She would have been better off if she’d used the fancy MP3 player for a while and it did get lost or broken. Sometimes, keeping precious things safe is the worst thing that can happen to those things. It’s like not having them at all – worse than not having them at all, because now you also need to dedicate storage space to them.
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I have nice matcha bowls, I alternate between them, I still have a favourite but if I don’t use them all I might as well sell the ones that don’t see the light of day.
That’s great wisdom. We shouldn’t keep stuff in a jar out of respect, or out of some fear that the memory it carries dissipates. Everything decays. Using that stuff is the best mark of respect and remembrance you can pay to whomever left you it. I’m writing this message to myself
I often think about Mark Hamill when he’s chastised by interviewers for giving his vintage first edition Star Wars figures to his children: “They’re toys, they’re meant to be played with!”
Honestly, being played with by Marks kids probably increased their value more than original packaging.
I fucking love that guy
I disagree. Good things become dull things if you have them constantly.
Never using also makes them nothing.
The real answer is moderation in all things, especially moderation itself
Obviously
Twice a month is a good balance imo.
But if you never use them, and just hoard them, they become nothing.
Worse than nothing, because now you need a place to store it and keep it safe.
Obvioualy there is a middle ground
Took me a while but I got there. I have fabric that my great-grandmother grew as flax, spun, dyed and wove on her loom, over 100 years old now. I’m using these pieces as wall hangings and sofa covers and even on my market stall - it’s a simple and pragmatic ancestor practice and in a sense I uncurse her life by carrying these pieces as I walk through my life way more undisturbed, unafraid and freely than she could.
Is coffee from Texas somehow special? Or just part of the joking…
They might be referencing some specific HEB coffee. My wife gets it from a friend sometimes when the friend brings it back, and she says it’s really good.
What’s does living in the water and on land have to do with how you feel about your possessions?
You got it wrong, an antiquarian is someone who hates quars
Even though it’s certainly good to treat yourself and get the most out of life, these kinds of catchphrases are dangerous. Unrestrained hedonism is selfish and short-sighted; it is what has brought humanity to the situation it finds itself in today—on the brink of the abyss.
If we continue as we have been, we will destroy the very foundations of our existence—and, with them, ourselves.
“After me, the deluge” is not an attitude worth aspiring to.
is it though? it’s not hedonism that’s hoarding trillions and waging wars
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Also wise, but missing the point I think. (which is to not hoard stuff for sentimental reasons)
Well, it’s a fine line: The highlighted passage—“Being alive is as special an occasion as it gets”—could, in principle or at least on its own, also be interpreted to mean that one should always live in the moment and not worry at all about tomorrow or one’s fellow human beings.
This would be a very selfish attitude that considers only one’s own well-being and derives something like a right to be inconsiderate from personal happiness.
In this particular case, that might sound a bit exaggerated, but preserving old things can also benefit future generations by ensuring that records of their predecessors are preserved. How far this should go is, of course, also a matter of balance, especially since there is certainly a responsibility to use resources sparingly and not constantly acquire new things when a need could just as easily be met with what’s already there.
So in short: The only point I’m trying to make is that, in my view, it’s important not to forget others—even those who haven’t even been born yet—in the pursuit of personal happiness.
Great advice!
