The Energy of Resources
They always say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
I feel like I have come to a deeper conviction and sense of what that really means during these past few months of CVOID-19 isolation. Like so many artists, I’ve been using my time to work quietly on my various art and music projects. The quiet is amazing for this for so many reasons. Yes, we’d all like to be out and about and playing shows, but there is just this special opportunity right now to see what is right in front of us. An opportunity to FINISH things. Songs that have been laying around in journals or on voice memos for years (I have hundreds of these, it’s so daunting). I’d been mulling on these concepts of resources and energy for a few years now, but today I felt it all sort of come together into something shareable. I am guilty of often now seeing the resources that are right in front of me…
As an American, I have shit everywhere. Pardon my French. I mean it. I have just loads and loads of stuff (I know you do too). Musically, I have dozen upon dozens of lesson books, musical scores and instructions books on how to do things across about 10 different disciplines. Do you think I’ve read or worked through even half of them? Of course not. And each one comes with a CD, youtube videos and extra information to deepen the learning experience. All things that I’ve said I’d do in my free time. Well. Guess what. Suddenly we all have a lot more time at home even as we enter into back into culture.
It’s not just the music stuff. I was looking through my closet and I have about 40 unused scarves that could probably be made into really effective and beautiful masks or blankets or tank tops or SOMETHING. I have about 20-30 jewelry pieces that could be stripped for their raw resources or repaired. Raw materials I could use to get moving on my jewelry again. And all the clothes I have that need to be given away or repaired. We all have those items right? You know, the one you paid way too much money for that looks horrible on you but you bought it anyway and then you felt guilty so you kept it and keep wearing it?
I have been thinking about it almost like weight gain lately. HAHAHAHAHA. Like, it goes on pretty fast but it can be slow to healthful get it off your body. And there are all sort of reasons to uncover along the way like: why do I have this excess in the first place. It can be a long and frustrating process that you just want to be done.
Most of the professional organizers I hear speak on the issue of “declutter” don’t address a co-existing value I carry to re-purpose and re-utilize old things. This issue I have been addressing and want to continue to address post CVOID-19 is this issue of what to do with old things or maybe where I source things to begin with. Recycling after all, is how I got into guitar string jewelry! A lot of creativity can come into play when we look twice at where we buy from and how we recycle. But like anyone, I get overwhelmed at time by the sheer quantity of things. Like, I have a goal of completing a home project and I want to be an instant consumer and do it all in one day. Or on a hasty spring cleaning day, I pack it all up and it goes to Goodwill without a second thought. All that stuff I bought brand new maybe even less than a year ago, just out the door without a thought. Now, don’t get me wrong. I do think there are time where all a person has got, is to just clear away the old. But, I do it far too often and I’d be so interested in knowing what might happen if I took care to more thoughtful source and recycle things in my life. What new things might I create? What new things might others create? What connections might be more deeply forged? What unmet needs might be met in my life and in the lives of those I know?
I’ve been finding the beauty in taking to the clutter challenge in a more slow and sustainable way. I taking breaks and don’t do it in one sitting. I realize that I don’t have to do this to say I’m a good human. This isn’t even about reviving my carbon footprint or even about just sharing with others—but it’s about the ENERGY of resources multiplying in the world. I think that’s a beautiful and true concept that can cause exponential growth in those who partake.
I’m not going to lie. Getting started was overwhelming. But I’ve decided that I’m committed to the process of looking at material things in a new light. Looking at my own needs in a new light. And looking at the needs of others, and how I might have an unwanted item that is exactly what they need at this very moment. Now that I’ve let go of the shame that I haven’t been doing this all along, the disgust that I have so much and that feeling to rush to load it all up in my car for a traditional spring clean–I’m already finding creative inspiration.