I recently read an article telling about a book where a guy pared his possessions down to 100 things. That's it! Just 100 things. I began to wonder what my 100 things would be if I were to do the same thing. Pictures would be part of my 100, for sure. But then I found myself wondering, "Are pictures one thing? Or would I have to count every single picture I kept as part of my 100???" And then I wondered that about lots of other things; silverware, (Are forks, for example, collectively, one thing or do I have to count every individual fork?!) underwear, books, clothes, towels, etc. Even things like kitchen knives. I like to cook and have different kinds of knives for different purposes. It was in thinking about the knives that I realized, I could use one really good knife for a variety of different tasks in the kitchen. It dawned on me that there are lots of things that I have that have lots of different uses. It just takes a little bit of thought and seeing things for more than what they appear on the surface.
There is a scene in the movie, 'Apollo 13' when the astronauts are trapped in their spacecraft because of a malfunction in some equipment. They, along with Mission Control back in Houston, are feverishly working to figure out a plan that will allow them to get back to Earth. The three astronauts on board are creating a deadly and toxic amount of carbon dioxide in the cabin and they need to figure out a way to remove the poisonous gas. There are all sorts of brilliant, scientific minds working on the problem. They all know how to remove carbon dioxide from the air. The problem is, the astronauts don't have any of the items necessary to do the job. But someone in the group decides to take a look at all of the items they DO have in the cabin. They are able to come up with a device that filters the carbon dioxide from the air. The device includes things like the cover from their procedure notebook. Now that's brilliant! Using what was available (granted, they had no choice in this particular situation) instead of getting a bunch of new stuff.
Awhile back, my youngest son had an assignment to do a report about an historical figure that made an impact on his or her area of expertise. My son has a very great interest in sports so he chose to do his report on Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. The report had to be written and then memorized and presented to the class. Oh, and the student had to be in a costume reminiscent of the historical figure that was chosen.
My son got on-line and found some very nice Jackie Robinson jerseys. They also came with a very nice price-tag of about $100. I not only didn't want to spend that much money on a jersey that would be worn less than a handful of times, I really couldn't spend that much money on it. Just didn't have it.
So I began to look around for suitable options at home.
Me: "Hey! How about a nice dark blue t-shirt? The color of the Brooklyn Dodgers?"
Son: "That would look stupid!! It's a t-shirt, not a baseball jersey!"
Me: "What about your Giants baseball jersey? I'll put a patch over the Giants logo."
Son: "Are you kidding me?? It's not even the right colors!"
Me: "Well, give me a couple days. I'll think of something."
I looked at the images of Jackie Robinson jerseys on-line. The prices didn't change in the two or three days that I kept looking at them even though I wished REALLY, REALLY hard that they would! There just HAD to be something that would work.
And then, somehow, it came to me! I took one of my husband's white t-shirts and laid it out on the dining room table. I had blue markers and blue paint. I taped off the sleeves to resemble rag sleeves on a baseball jersey and painted them blue. I used a yardstick and the blue markers to draw pin stripes down the front and back of the jersey. I dug through whatever craft supplies I had and found some dark blue felt and cut out the word 'Brooklyn' in my best cursive and block letters that spelled 'Robinson' along with the number 42.
The 'Brooklyn' was glued to the front at the proper rakish angle and the 'Robinson' and 42 were glued to the back. We added baseball socks, cap, pants and cleats (not that difficult in a household in which three boys have grown up!) and ended up with a perfectly acceptable Jackie Robinson baseball uniform. :)
I'm finding more and more that even IF I have the ability to purchase something new, it isn't always the best. Besides, it would only add more to my collective number of possessions and I've got a long way to go to pare down to 100 things. :)
Peace out,
Lyn
