Deep Value
Apr. 2nd, 2008 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThere's a wonderful essay about things that have "deep value" -- that are long-lasting, durable, and/or subject to user repair at need. I'm not enough of a mechanic to favor machines that can be tinkered with, but I can mend ripped clothes. (We have several friends who borrow our laundry room periodically. It's not rare for them to ask me to mend something.) Mending conserves both money and material resources.
I love shopping at historical fairs because almost everything sold there will be sturdy. Sure, I can buy a package of 3 wooden spoons at Wal-Mart for $.99 but I'll have to replace them a year or two later. If I buy a wooden spoon from a carver, it might cost me $4-6 ... but I have a few of those that are more than 10 years old now.
I despise "planned obsolescence," the modern business practice of making things that are intended to break so the customer will have to buy a new one. I've heard repairmen talk about "terminal components" and "fatal repairs" -- the parts that, when they stop working, can't be fixed and require purchasing a whole new machine. That infuriates me more than I can describe.
We do have disposable things in the household, but preferably things that don't lend themselves well to re-use. When possible, things are cycled through degenerating uses: good clothes become garden clothes become rags. Grocery bags are saved to become garbage bags, or bundled and given to a shopkeeper for re-use. We have a tremendous amount of stuff ... but that means, if something is needed, chances are we either have it or have something that can be made to do the same job.
There's a saying I picked up from my grandparents, who came through the Great Depression: "Eat it all, use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without." That's a good philosophy in a world that's running low on some resources.
I love shopping at historical fairs because almost everything sold there will be sturdy. Sure, I can buy a package of 3 wooden spoons at Wal-Mart for $.99 but I'll have to replace them a year or two later. If I buy a wooden spoon from a carver, it might cost me $4-6 ... but I have a few of those that are more than 10 years old now.
I despise "planned obsolescence," the modern business practice of making things that are intended to break so the customer will have to buy a new one. I've heard repairmen talk about "terminal components" and "fatal repairs" -- the parts that, when they stop working, can't be fixed and require purchasing a whole new machine. That infuriates me more than I can describe.
We do have disposable things in the household, but preferably things that don't lend themselves well to re-use. When possible, things are cycled through degenerating uses: good clothes become garden clothes become rags. Grocery bags are saved to become garbage bags, or bundled and given to a shopkeeper for re-use. We have a tremendous amount of stuff ... but that means, if something is needed, chances are we either have it or have something that can be made to do the same job.
There's a saying I picked up from my grandparents, who came through the Great Depression: "Eat it all, use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without." That's a good philosophy in a world that's running low on some resources.
