Values to Take with You

Translated…

After a few years, the CD player started picking what it would play, and now, it’d gone on, it’s, final STRIKE. The weather here in Taiwan is too damp, and all the parts are easily damaged, and so, I can only, send it in, to get fixed. Oh, wait a minute, it’s NOT just my CD player, my television set also, started objecting too.

not my photograph…

“Do you want to buy a newer one? This model had stopped producing already, it’s not worth it to fix it back up again.” The man whom I’d taken my electronics to called to remind me, getting a brand new laser reader, and fixing all the malfunctioning buttons, if I’d put in a little more extra, I can afford to get a brand new one. “Are you sure you want to fix it?”, living in the digital age, cell phone video viewer, computer media players are very convenient, and, naturally, the upgrades also came at one per minute, and thinking on how my CD player would eventually become, obsolete, I’d started, to become, unstable in thought now.

No! This time, however, I’m holding my horses, “Sir, do fix it up for me please.”

It’s not that I’d feel that strong attachment to older things, I’m more troubled by what comes next: how do I take responsibility for this “army officer” who’s still able to fight in battle, but is now, forced, into “retirement”? Carry thing heavy machine, out of breath, down the stairs, and place it in that recycle bin? Where would the still-working machine be sent to then? Thinking about how something that’s still working, getting treated like “garbage”, and if it’s worth something, it would get dismantled, and become sold as scrap metal, and if it’s not worth anything, then, it’d become, a burden to the environment, I’d feel, awful, thinking about it.

Buy a new one then, who fixes these things these years anyways? Who’s it that’s been hollering, “instead of fixing things, just get brand new?” When the shoes are worn out, buying a new pair seemed to be the valid choice, if not considering the brands, you can get a pair for just a couple hundred dollars, and, the cost it takes, to fix up the shoes, the manual labor fees, would be a HELL of a lot more expensive than getting that brand new pair. Every year, before the New Year’s, during the year-end cleaning, there would be cheap, expandable items, getting stacked all over, on the corners of the streets. “Get a new one then.” There are, an assortment of items, very cheap, fixing these old things isn’t cost-efficient at all.

not my photo…

In this air of encouraging people to spend more money, buying things can make us feel happy, but, there are too many things in life that are, “designed to be discarded”, and so, we’d not cared about where those new things come from or where the discarded, disposed of machines go. Who’s going to remember how carefully one unwrapped that deliver package with care, fearing, that one might scratch the surface of the machines? Like lifting that veil off of the new bride’s face, with a kiss, that sealed forever. And in the end, you’d still, tossed it aside and away carelessly, treated the items like they’re huge eyesores, it’d made me feel so awful, just thinking about it.

If you have the chance, do go see the film, “The Story of Stuff”. When we’d expanded thirty-percent of our new resources, at the same time, we’d also, made thirty percent MORE trash, and, we’re also, giving thumbs up to those who are trying, to rape the environment. Loving a person for real, you’d be willing to take responsibility for the love for life. And, you should carry that same mindset toward your belongings too—do you really care, if the items you’d discarded are discarded with, dignity? Or that it can, be reused, or even, recycled too? From the manufacturers, to the consumers, “taking responsibility for an entire lifetime” isn’t at all that difficult, all that’s needed, is our attitudes, adjusted.

So, this, is on environmentalism and consumer behaviors, and, the writer is right, think about it, how many times do you go to the malls to shop and bring back a TON of things that you don’t need? That, is the human psychology, we keep on, wanting MORE and MORE stuff, because we’re drawn by these materialistic CRAP, like wearing gold things can make our statuses show, or flashing those hundred-dollar bills can let the rest of the world know, just how FILTHY rich we are, but all of that reduces down, to vanity, and, this world is already, VAIN enough, without our behaving to add to that, so, before you throw something away next time, think about: can this be fixed, or, is it, outdated that it can, be put up for auction on Antiques Roadshow, and in which case, you may just, get a TON of money, for selling those outdated items, so, it’s still, a win-win for you!!!

Still NOT my photograph here…