It's just stuff.

JK,
Retiring this yr,getting rid of a lot of "stuff"! When you retire(or me anyway)
you think,what if I need this or that....Surprising what you ..don't need!! Lord blessed me & I can retire comfortable...but...I'm not stupid,don't spend to keep up with anyone Friend retiring, has a boat,car,truck,motorcycle,wants a new boat(one he has been used little this past yr)says he needs a new boat!! I asked him why?? His answer,because I want one!!
Jim
 
Bruce Bump said:
I enjoyed the story. I grew up in Kansas and have seen some tornadoes. The old guy is right. Thanks for taking time to share it here.
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I grew up and lived in South west Mo. We had a lot of severe storms and tordando's. You don't have to be from tornado alley to like this story. My family and I are going through a big "storm" right now. I was telling our attorney on Friday the same thing " it's just stuff"....

Great story Jacknife:thumbup:
 
jackknife said:
" What that old man said was true. I think I'm going to have a big yard sale this weekend. Funny how sometimes it takes a disaster to make you see what's really important. All this materialism, it's all just stuff."
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JK,

Don't know what you have been through, it was a good story, but not hitting it for me.

I have been evacuated from my home 2x in the last five years due to fires. You sit there, listening to the radio, watching tv....wondering if you will have a house to go home to.....anything you cannot carry out in between 10 and 30 minutes could be lost....luckily, by the Grace of G_d, we have been spared.

It isn't just stuff...it is a physical manifestation of memories in many cases.....my refrigerator, dining room table, wine collection.....that's all replaceable....but the books, records, photographs, pieces of art....all represent something very valuable to me, and not in dollars, but in memories, as my wife says, emotional currency. I have a silver rattle from my childhood that I will probably forget to take in the next evacuation, but if it were lost, would leave a small hole in my psyche.

If you have not been there, you don't know what it feels like. If you have been there, and still feel this way, we differ in our take.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Thank you for a good and thoughtful story, Jackknife. That man had made his peace with god it seams like, Makes me want to sit by his cofeepot for a while. Got the feeling of being there as so often when you write your great tales.

And thank you Steven for a wiev into this matters, not as a good story, but as a experience you made.
I would think fire is the most definitive way to loose the things, If its storm or water there will be a little easyer to find some things back from nature, fire just takes it all and layes it in ashes.

Bosse
 
From a confirmed packrat (me) this does hit home. I have tons of stuff that holds great memories, but to experience the memories, one has to actually take the object out and remember, something that does not happen often. In the end the memories are still there, and when you think back on it the memories are often better than the real thing. This was a great story, at least to me.
 
Jackknife the more I read from you and the closer I get to retiring the more I want that big downsize you talk about. Through your words I can look at stuff that I used to think just got to have and now just walk by and hold my good old BUCK 301 and smile and think some other idiots going to get that stuff ha ha ha. Thanks to you.
 
What a great story. I hope one day I can achieve that level of detachment to "stuff"
Thanks for sharing Jackknife!
 
Yes a great story! It's tornado season here. I hope we don't have too many this year. We had one REAL close last year about this time.
 
slimshaneee said:
What a great story. I hope one day I can achieve that level of detachment to "stuff"
Thanks for sharing Jackknife!
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I don't know if I'd call it detachment. I'm not really sure just what happened, but someplace along the line material stuff got moved to second place when my family started to grow. I found these little people that were so dependant on me became the most important things in my life. Children, grandchildren. I started looking at immaterial things as just stuff, nowhere near as important to me as the people in my life. Stuff became just stuff. But the people were priceless.

You can always buy another gun, or knife, or car, but only God's grace gives you loved ones.
 
Thank you, another one added to my file of your stories. They are like meatloaf & mashed potatoes w/gravy on a cold stormy night.
 
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