“Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.”
Mark Twain
Archives for December 2010
The Challenge
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I am challenging myself to a “No Buy January”.
Let me try to clarify this a little bit. For the entire month of Januaury, I am going to try not to purchase anything other than household necessities (food, gas, toilet paper, etc). That means, no new clothes which none of us need. No nothing off Amazon. I think I spent 56,000 dollars there for Christmas so if I succeed in this, their stock may suffer. Just sayin. No nothing off eBay. No cute antique silverplate items. No slightly used books. No craft kits. The more I list here, the worse this idea seems. Ugh.
I really am only doing this as an experiment for my own life. We’re not in a financial crisis. My husband is not screaming about the money I spend. (He never fusses about money at all which is wonderful and odd at the same time.) But basically I had an epiphany of sorts during the beginning of the holiday season. Someone asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I could not think of one stinkin thing that I needed. At that same time, the idea of simplifying my life became this nagging, ever present idea for me.
So, if I need nothing and I know that God is calling me to make some margins in my life, then there really shouldn’t be any difficulty at all in not making any unnecessary purchases for 30 whole days. Right? Right?
This isn’t an all or nothing challenge. If one of the kids gets invited to a birthday party, I will buy a present. If somebody needs a black turtleneck for some school nonsense, I will buy it. I’m not doing this to punish my family. I’m guessing most of them won’t even notice. I just want to see how much time I actually waste on being a consumer. And then see if I can put that time to better use.
And please don’t worry about the state of the US economy. My grocery bill alone can sustain it.
Quoted
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“When I was young I admired clever people. Now that I’m old I admire kind people.”
Abraham Heschel
Silver Lining
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I may or may not have gone off the eBay deep end.
I can explain…kinda.
I really, really, really love silver.
Also, I never actually owned any.
Kevin had a few nice pieces when I met him. A tea set, a couple of pitchers and a few platters. (Funny story…once when we were dating, Kevin’s ex-wife wanted to borrow the platters. He agreed and told her just to come by and get them. This was before the robbery when the doors were not routinely locked. When we got home, he noticed the platters were still there. He called to see why his ex hadn’t picked them up and she said she couldn’t use them because they were tarnished. This story tickles me every time I think about it because I just can’t figure out who she thought might actually polish those platters.) Anyway, the tea set and at least one pitcher were stolen which broke my heart.
After we got married, I polished all the remaining pieces and didn’t think much about them for a while. Then a few months ago, I read about a silver punch bowl in my Southern Living magazine. This created an unquenchable need for a silver punch bowl in my life. How had I lived 37 years without one? The author of the article said she used hers to chill champagne and to ice down shrimp. Champagne! Shrimp! I love both those things! The hunt was on. Unfortunately, every gal south of the Mason-Dixon line must have read the same article because the bidding for silver punch bowls was going hardcore when I arrived. It was not pretty.
During the three month period that I was stalking the punch bowls, I discovered all kinds of awesome silverplate pieces. First, I fell in love with these butter dishes.
(Also I got those candlesticks so cheap it was nearly stealing.)
But mainly what I love about the butter dishes is the knife.
Ain’t it cute?
Then, I started seeing these cake baskets. I know. I never heard of such a thing either. Apparently, brides used to carry them in the early 1900’s. These things could bring out the hoarder in me. I just want all of them.
Finally, the Southern Living furor died down and I got this beauty for a ridiculously low price. It is perfect for me. The best part was that it was tarnished when I bought it. Cleaning up a piece of tarnished silver makes me feel like I have discovered a treasure. It thrills me.
I’m trying hard to taper off my silver hobby. If I really want to simplify my life, spending an hour a day on eBay is probably not the best way to achieve that. But there is just something about silver. I’m not sure what the draw is. Maybe I just like the idea of having something to leave for my children. Maybe I just like shiny things. Maybe I just like the idea of having something to hide from the Yankees.
Book Review – The Lonely Polygamist
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Polygamy infuriates and fascinates me. It drives me nuts yet I cannot pass by an opportunity to hear or read about it. I almost always regret it. This book was no exception.
The lonely polygamist is Golden Richards. He has four wives and 24 children. At the beginning of this novel, he finds himself embroiled in a chaste love affair with another man’s wife. Normally I would never use the phrase ‘he finds himself’ when referring to adultery. That’s the cop out excuse of almost every lying cheater.
“I didn’t mean to.”
“I don’t know how this happened.”
“I had no control over my feelings.”
Blah, blah, blah. But I use that to describe this situation because Golden Richards doesn’t seem to do anything intentionally. He is a pretty pathetic character yet, for some reason, I like him. I give tons of credit to the author for creating any sympathy at all in me for his character. Because, in case I haven’t mentioned it eleventy times. I NO LIKE POLYGAMISTS! I watched one episode of that show ‘Sister Wives’ on TLC and almost went insane. Conversely, I always enjoyed ‘Big Love’ on HBO mostly because it highlighted all the obvious problems that polygamy creates.
Katie saw me reading this book and asked me what a polygamist was. I explained the concept to her in the most basic of terms appropriate for a nine year old. Her immediate reaction was “I would never share my husband with another woman!” See. Even a fourth grader can see how jacked up this lifestyle is…but I digress.
The book goes on to talk about how complicated Golden’s life is (shocking, huh?) In the end there is tragedy, confession and, in a way, redemption. It’s a thought provoking book. I would not say that Brady Udall is antagonistic or sympathetic toward the idea of polygamy. The novel is really about this particular man and while his lifestyle may be unique(thank God) his character faults aren’t.
