Renewal and reinvention: metscan's comment
"The pieces I now have satisfy me completely, and I hope I can hold `my horses´, and from now on only admire jewelry without an urge to buy something. I have noticed that this need to renew myself is going on with clothes, shoes, furniture, everything. Have you, Duchesse, experienced it ever?"
I'm quoting
mestcan, eloquent commenter of the shifts in her life. She, you might recall, disposed of most of her jewelry, then (click link for her method) acquired one perfect pair of studs. Metscan seems in a period of renewal, but without excess.
Though maintenance is an ongoing task, I don't need or want to renew our furniture. Trying to find something Le Duc liked drove me to tears 25 years ago, when we were in our intensive nesting phase. (Shown, sofa he finally approved after five years of hunting.)
I notice a marked drop in my drive to acquire, punctuated by occasional intense bursts of desire, usually for accessories or art.
Media moguls like Moses Znaimer, head of
ZoomerMedia ("zoomer" is the vital, unfogeyish boomer) are courting post-50s, typically ignored as a potential pool of consumers. Marketers say we have more time to shop and more disposable income than younger adults.
But I think that's wishful thinking. Most of my 50+ friends are not interested what C.S. Lewis described as "the American Dream: Work, Buy, Display, Repeat." The women I know are trying shed the stuff crowding their basements or closets.
And yet, I revere reinvention, woman embracing change, exiting outdated and unwanted strictures. One woman (divorced, children long grown) left a prestigious consulting job to work in an orphanage in Bosnia. Another decided, after 50, to turn her farm into a refuge for dogs rescued from war zones.
Maybe the change is more modest: joining a choir that accepts less than stellar voices, and lets you sing your heart out. Finding help with the care of an aging parent, so you can recover your patience and stamina. Orthodontics, this time for you. When in her late 60s, my friend Marcelle signed up for "Fly Fishing for Dames" and found inner peace wading Massachusetts' streams.
The ot
her awareness that weighs against acquiring more is the realization of how much is needed by so many. While I show some fabulous jewelry on this site, I think of much good the money spent on a bauble could do directed towards medical care, clean water or lending organizations that help women in developing countries start small businesses.
This is not to say I will never buy another pair of earrings or cashmere sweater; it's not a dichotomy. But how much is enough? For me it feels like less all the time.
How about you?
I'm quoting
mestcan, eloquent commenter of the shifts in her life. She, you might recall, disposed of most of her jewelry, then (click link for her method) acquired one perfect pair of studs. Metscan seems in a period of renewal, but without excess.
Though maintenance is an ongoing task, I don't need or want to renew our furniture. Trying to find something Le Duc liked drove me to tears 25 years ago, when we were in our intensive nesting phase. (Shown, sofa he finally approved after five years of hunting.)I notice a marked drop in my drive to acquire, punctuated by occasional intense bursts of desire, usually for accessories or art.
Media moguls like Moses Znaimer, head of
ZoomerMedia ("zoomer" is the vital, unfogeyish boomer) are courting post-50s, typically ignored as a potential pool of consumers. Marketers say we have more time to shop and more disposable income than younger adults.But I think that's wishful thinking. Most of my 50+ friends are not interested what C.S. Lewis described as "the American Dream: Work, Buy, Display, Repeat." The women I know are trying shed the stuff crowding their basements or closets.
And yet, I revere reinvention, woman embracing change, exiting outdated and unwanted strictures. One woman (divorced, children long grown) left a prestigious consulting job to work in an orphanage in Bosnia. Another decided, after 50, to turn her farm into a refuge for dogs rescued from war zones.
Maybe the change is more modest: joining a choir that accepts less than stellar voices, and lets you sing your heart out. Finding help with the care of an aging parent, so you can recover your patience and stamina. Orthodontics, this time for you. When in her late 60s, my friend Marcelle signed up for "Fly Fishing for Dames" and found inner peace wading Massachusetts' streams.
The ot
her awareness that weighs against acquiring more is the realization of how much is needed by so many. While I show some fabulous jewelry on this site, I think of much good the money spent on a bauble could do directed towards medical care, clean water or lending organizations that help women in developing countries start small businesses. This is not to say I will never buy another pair of earrings or cashmere sweater; it's not a dichotomy. But how much is enough? For me it feels like less all the time.
How about you?
Comments
Now it is all a matter of quality not quantity, in my jewelry as well as in my life.
And I think that KIVA is one of the few organizations where the funds needed actually reach the end user who needs them.
What I'm more conscious of is something I posted about today in response to your question -- it's the movement to accept myself as I am now -- that is a reinvention for me, and I doubt I'll ever achieve it, but I'm trying (Wow! did I just set that move to acceptance up as another goal I can't achieve -- the opposite of self-acceptance! Yikes! where's the therapist?!
Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to think about this -- looking forward to reading the rest of the conversation.
I mean't to type de-acquisition.
I blame it on early morning pre-coffee blogging.
Does anyone know how I can get automatic spell check on blogger?
Reading your post, it seems that everyone begins a new chapter at her own pace, at various times. I'm all for enjoyment of any period of one's life, whether it is the results of the fruits of study, childbearing or gardening (metaphorically or literally). Sometimes it's time to make a change, sometimes not. And sometimes, as you observed, life hands them to us.
Belle: Lucky you that he wants your family stuff. I said no to so many things from my mother that I now wish I had- like a Steinway baby grand. Kicking myself.
I think that as I mature, I want less stuff, but more quality - I don't need new new new all the time like I may have wanted when I was 20.
Alienne: You remind me that I do need to replace appliances, and so enjoy beautifully designed household gear.
-I lived most of my life out of a suitcase and accumulated nothing.When finally I had children and we, as a family nested a huge flood in 1992 destoyed everything= I guess the only items I really felt so sad about were their pictures- ruined carried out to sea. And videos of them as babies- and my rigby and peller best bras -the babies they were still just 4 and 6 so time to make more memories. We were luckily rescued by a boat and carried to safety.
I enjoyed reading this piece and at times envy people who have tons of boxed treasures- I just live on bare neccessities. But still so much fun to hear about you all and from my friends concerned about decluttering and simplifying their lives.
Must be hard to let stuff go?