Another Man's Treasure

I’ve got so much of what I consider treasure in my room that there’s hardly enough space for me to navigate, much less conduct my life. I need another room, just one more.

Are the three boxes of CD jewel boxes excessive? Not when you are someone who needs a dozen or so and does not want to spend 50 or 75 cents each to buy them. The radio station was tossing them and I was catching them.

Same for the videotapes one department was ridding itself of. Dozens of standard-length tapes that can be re-used. Why buy them when I can give you what you want for free? And I have. Another department had some outdated 30-minute (fast speed; 90 minute slow speed) tapes they didn’t realize could be recorded over. Dozens of them, now in my digs.

On the other hand, the local Methodist Church’s downtown used bookstore will soon be the recipient of my trash, a few boxes of what they will find are new treasures.

One of my friends told me about Big Trash Day or, rather, the night before BTD. It was like free day at the toy store. Their pile of trash ended up at about one-third its original size. Trash out, treasure in. It changes from one to the other in a moment, as a practiced eye and a trained mind looks at any object at all, sees worth in it, and brings it home.

A weed is a flower we haven’t found a use for. Trash is something one person can no longer use. Weeds or trash, the smart person finds a use.