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We’ve been having beautiful summer sunsets here this week. I took this photo out in the oldfield meadow – it’s actually, a composite patched together from three photos (click on image for a larger view). I always think about how it’s the really good stuff that is for free in this world. Last night, I got to enjoy this sunset and also the many wildflowers growing in the meadows — the colours are especially vibrant as the evening light grows dim. Later there were night sounds around the garden, and then a few beautiful moths around the porch lights. All free for the price of looking or listening.
Yesterday, I wrote to a friend who sometimes posts here, to tell him how we had bought a new sofa — nothing special at all — a purely functional thing to replace our rather old leather sofa that was getting badly worn and had seen better days. After moving the old sofa outdoors, we debated what to do with it and decided to clean it up as best we could, set it out on the roadside, and stick a “FREE” sign on it. That’s what we did, and were pleasantly surprised when, almost moments after we got it out to the road, someone stopped and took it away. My friend suggested that I write about this here on my blog to remind people that we shouldn’t just toss stuff out without trying to give it away first. Somewhere, there’s probably someone who would love to have that old lawn mower, sofa, or other item that you no longer want.
Out where I live, it’s really quite pathetic to see what people will toss out in the garbage. It just happens that we live in a rural community along a river where a lot of very wealthy people have built immense houses with tennis courts, swimming pools, 3 or 4 car garages, docks with yachts, etc… When we came here 30 years ago, the river was a quiet place. Now the shoreline is crowded with mansions and boats cruise by all day long throughout summer. It’s been very weird to see this transformation in recent years. However, what is even weirder is to see how, along that section of the river, on garbage day, in front of so many of the houses, the garbage is heaped like huge Viking funeral pyres each week — loaded with all kinds of no-longer-wanted furniture, sporting goods, computers, and other objects. I can’t figure out why these people toss this stuff in the garbage instead of sending it to one of the goodwill stores, or eve just stick it out at the curb on a non-garbage day of the week with a “Free” sign so people will know that they can take it away. Also, there are “freecycle” networks in almost every city where stuff can be posted as “free” on a bulletin board. Why send this stuff to the landfill sites when someone could make use of a desk, chair, bicycle, or other item?
