This, Our Valley: What to do when your life is stuffed

 

"It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.” Albert Camus

Where does stuff come from? Every morning I strive to rise and shine, but these days I find myself less vertical as I rise, and I’m not sure “shine” comes close to describing the state of my mind or body as my joints and tendons snap, crackle, and pop into place as I make my way through the darkened manse, seeking to relieve that which needs relieving.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take but a few sips of the blackened brew of some magical beans to put the lead back in my pencil. I always feel like I’m one of those Thanksgiving Day balloons that rises from a shapeless pile of rubber, taking form as it’s inflated. Coffee is my helium!

Back to “stuff” – where does it all come from? Once I’ve gotten my coffee and tackled my morning meditations, I fire up my laptop to check the news (to see if the world has survived) and catch up on any emails that may have arrived by those faithful digital carrier pigeons we rely on. 

What I find choking my inbox (which is helpfully divided into separate tabs for Primary, Promotions, Social, and Update mails) is all the stuff to which I have subscribed and which isn’t, technically, junk mail or spam. It’s just a ton of fliers from every business from which I have ever bought stuff, or businesses that have products I may have been interested in at one time or another over the past thirty years, or trivia pertaining to sports, entertainment, language, education, health, and other such whatnot. Sheesh!

I am a curious sort of soul, so I find myself doing a lot of exploring. My income is limited, so most of my exploring these days is done from the convenience of my home and done via the world wide web. I find myself going down many rabbit holes on my journeys, and I am seldom bored by what I find (while the quantity of information exceeds the quality exceedingly).

Which brings me back to my original question. Where does so much of that stuff come from, and how does one choose which lane to travel? I mean, even Robert Frost never makes clear which road he eventually took when he came to the fork. He just ponders the mystery of what he might find if he were to choose right from left, the more traveled or less traveled path – and the sorrow that comes with making a decision without knowing what might have been missed if the decision had gone the other way.

Life is like that, though. Clutter. Options. Choices. Decisions (or, in my case, indecisions). 

It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to run down the list of overnight stuff that’s come in, enter checkmarks in those little boxes next to each missal, and delete the whole shootin’ match. It doesn’t take but a few seconds, but it’s a few seconds I’ll never get back. Will I miss them? Probably not. 

It just gives me something to grouse about, and the positive side of that reality is that one has to be alive to grouse about the state of things.

That’s the positive side to grumbling (beyond pulse and respiration). There is knowing that things could be better, can be better. To grouse is to say, “I don’t like how things are now,” and then adding, “so what might I do to make them better?”

Emails are easy. Delete what you don’t want. Unsubscribe to things you never read. If you need something, see if it can be acquired locally instead of through an online resource or retailer. The pandemic crisis is over, so it’s OK to leave the house, enjoy the sunshine, snow, rain, or wind. It’s OK to go for walks, wave to the neighbors, rake fallen leaves (or roll around in them), or stop to chat with friends at the local hardware store or grocer.

The point is, deal with stuff as it comes and don’t be such a stuffed shirt. Live! As Camus says, "It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.” So let’s put on our thinking caps and live here in this, our valley!

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)