Throwing Things Out

 A little while ago, the bundle buggy I've been using for the past eight years finally broke. I was wheeling it back from Food Basics and one of the wheels popped off. At first I thought I could just screw it back on, but it had cracked in an awkward spot. The buggy managed to deliver its final load home, but I've since had to get rid of it.

Using something to its fullest potential, even something like a bundle buggy, almost gives me a sense of peace. Like it fulfilled its purpose, even to the point of carrying out its final voyage and delivering its final load. Thank you, bundle buggy, for carrying my burdens these past eight years.

Another time I've felt this way was when I used to sleep on a couch bed. One day, after taking a nap, I got up and it collapsed behind me. I couldn't be frustrated. After all, it hung on long enough to make sure I got one final nap in.

During a cultural competencies course I took in college, we were taught the Iroquoian concept of the Orenda. To my understanding, this is the idea that everything in this world has an energy and life, both the animate and the inanimate. Not only that, everything has a purpose and desires to fulfill its purpose. The example given in class was that a table was fulfilling its Orenda by holding up a cup and a binder. So, my bundle buggy carrying loads of groceries until it could do so no more, and my couch bed providing me rest until that last nap, were able to fulfil their Orenda.

I got that bundle buggy back when I lived in student housing from a hardware store near my college. It's seen me through four living spaces and was even used to transport many loads of possessions in the gap month when I had the leases for both my old place and this one, to lighten the load of the final move.

I also had to get rid of an old cup recently. It had suns, moons, and stars, all with faces. I brought it with me to college from a set my mom had. This is going to sound a little less sweet, but you could measure the appropriate amount of your adult beverage of choice by filling to different rays of light from the sun displayed on the cup. For liquor, fill to the first spoke of light, for wine, go to the second, for beer, the third. I don't think it was intentionally designed for that purpose, but I figured it out.

It was the last survivor of the set. This past week, I looked at how faded the decals were. You could barely make out the sun, and I made the hard decision to get rid of it. We have a white board over here with a wish list, and I put "fancy cup" on it, even though I don't think I can replace it. I'm just keeping it on there until I can come to terms with the fact I'm not getting another one.

We also got rid of my old deep freeze. I bought it from a woman in my old neighbourhood. It served me well until we moved it over here. It worked at first, but it's temperature dial was stuck and when we tried to adjust it, it died. We kept using it as additional counter space until we recently got a new one. Apparently deep freezers, (as well as printers and breadmakers) all trended during the pandemic, so I felt kind of vulnerable without one.

We put it out to the curb to be taken as bulk pickup on garbage day, but someone took it almost immediately. Those people are going to be real disappointed having gone through the effort to take something so bulky and find it doesn't work, but what do you expect when it's been put out with the garbage?

I recently updated most of my other blogs:

Gryphood (broccoli cheddar soup): Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Panera Copycat) (gryphood.blogspot.com)

Gryphon's Reviews (Kim's Convenience, Korean-Canadian sitcom): Gryphon's Reviews: Kim's Convenience (Sitcom) (gryphonsreviews.blogspot.com)

Gryphon's Gallery (three new paintings): Gryphon's Gallery: Elephant Sunset, Fruit Bowl, Peppers (gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com)