Just recently my grandfather passed away; through settling the  estate and sifting through his personal belongings, mementos, and a large collection of photographs and slides, has given me many opportunities to reflect on how we occupy the world today.

Through the relentless media onslaught to buy the “newest, biggest, shiniest……”(fill in the blank with a product of choice), we are driven to consume and discard an ever growing supply of “stuff”.  What happens when we discard this “stuff”?  Like most communities in North America, my trash is collected at the curb and trucked away.  The problem is that “away” is getting pretty full, so now we have to find another “away” to dispose of our trash.  What happens when there is no “away” left?  We would then, at current consumption levels, be piling trash ever higher and more precariously in our backyards and under our homes.  One can imagine the result of a carelessly applied misstep.

I have an old sofa that belonged to my grandparents that I’m currently storing for my mother.  The sofa is over 70 years old; solidly crafted, of a Danish Modern design, and has been recovered numerous times according to the decorating whims of my grandmother, but is still as solid as the day it was made.

If we, as a society, demanded an end to the planned obsolescence that pervades the whole of retail goods, we could return to the days of quality-built goods: items that are repairable and durable.  With such goods in hand, we will find that we need to consume less; with less consumption, less damage to our environments both personal and globally.

With less consumption of goods, and returning to a lifestyle of “just enough”, we could return to a more elegant way of living where the accumulation of goods and “keeping up with the Jones’s” takes a backseat to stronger ties with family, friends, and neighbours.