Ok, out the door today are…
5- men’s shirts
3- women’s skirts
2- books. One doesn’t even have a cover (that’s what happens when you loan it to someone who loans it to someone who does NOT want to read it. Sigh). I kept it as a “loaner”… and never could bring myself to loan a book without a cover. So why did I keep on keeping it? Supidity? I thought so.
What’s all the hubbub about Amish fiction? Major media outlets like Time and ABC Nightline are covering it, and authors like Cindy Woodsmall are making the New York Times bestseller list regularly. What makes these books so interesting? Check out the recent ABC Nightline piece about Cindy and her titles When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and When the Soul Mends. It’s an intriguing look at Amish culture and the time Cindy has spent with Amish friends. And don’t forget that Cindy’s new book The Hope of Refuge hits store shelves August 11, and is available for preorder now.
I think Americans who live lives of busyness and business envy the apparent simplicity in a lack of drive to be busy for busynesses sake and who don’t see business as the ultimate goal in life. It makes me think of that line in Gaskell’s North and South when Margaret says about southern England, “It may be a little less energetic in its pursuit of competitive trade…” I think that is the difference. While life isn’t necessarily easier for the Amish (they certainly work harder than anyone I know), it is much less complicated and we crave that. I just think we have a tendency to romanticize simplicity to mean ease as well as a lack of complication.
I’ve never read anything by Cindy Woodsmall but I can guarantee I’m off to find out more!
Photo courtesy of Istockphoto.com
I didn’t think we had it but alas, today I got an eyeopener. Now, we don’t have a collection of three hundred bed pans or fifty dead remotes form machines we haven’t owned for years. We don’t have exercise paraphernalia that we never use for more than a clothing ‘valet’ or a collection of trolls from 1984. My husband doesn’t have a ‘workshop’ of tools he’s never used or used once and my children have a fraction of the number of toys that the average American children have.
But today, we had to move everything up off the floor. All closets emptied, all book cases moved, all the storage under the living room pew set on the table. The result is absolutely amazing. Our living room table is COVERED (100″ table) Of course, part of what is on it is a chair and similar things but still… My bed… is loaded. Nothing is frivolous per se… a guitar, crates of pictures, Kevin’s bicycle trainer and pumps, the suitcase… Even the piano bench I think. But still, there is stuff. Everywhere. We’re loaded with stuff.
I am not of the “it’s evil to own a bunch of stuff while the rest of the world has little” camp. I consider everything we own to be a blessing and a gift from the Lord and I am thankful that we have the means and opportunity to appreciate it. I am, however, wondering how much of what I see is worth the space we allocate to it. I keep looking at what is up on the living room table and it’s used/able stuff. At the moment (in preparation for this extermination) I see
On the bench we have…
That’s just the living room. Let’s not forget little things like my bed, the boy’s room, the girl’s room etc.
It is time to do something. I don’t know what, but it’s time to do it.
What to do?
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