Hello Everyone
Let’s consider the word ‘away’. Where is away? This question was posed to me when we throw rubbish away. ‘Where is away?’ I would like to share with you some comments about where ‘away’ is and how stuff and rubbish might be considered spiritual issues. In David Mackay’s book; Sustainable Energy – without the hot air he writes; “One of the main sinks of energy in the ‘developed’ world is the creation of stuff. In its natural life cycle, stuff passes through three stages. First a new born stuff is displayed in shiny packaging on a shelf in a shop. At this stage, stuff is called ‘goods’.
As soon as the stuff is taken home and sheds its packaging, it undergoes a transformation from ‘goods’ to its second form, ‘clutter’.The clutter lives with its owner for a period of months or years. During this period, the clutter is largely ignored by its owner, who is off at the shops buying more goods. Eventually by a miracle of modern alchemy, the clutter is transformed into its final form, rubbish. To the untrained eye it can be difficult to distinguish this rubbish from the highly desirable ‘goods’ that it used to be. Nevertheless, at this stage the discerning owner pays the garbage collector to transport the stuff away.
So could it be that ‘stuff’ is a spirituality issue?Dave Bookless in his book Planetwise commented: “Perhaps the single most effective step I have taken in terms of avoiding waste is to try to pray every time I put something in the bin. As I do so, I give thanks for the natural resources that have created the item and reflect on whether I have been a good steward.
Often my prayers end up as guilty confessions, as I ask myself did I really need this? Did I need the item with all this packaging? Sometimes my anguish is not personal so much as frustration with a culture that dictates I can’t buy things that aren’t covered in polystyrene and plastic, and I simple say sorry for what we as the human race have done in taking this world for granted.“Perhaps if we see waste as a spiritual issue it might cause us to go back to the start of the process; buying things in the first place. Now, before buying something, consider asking ‘do I really need this?’
So dear reader, do you really need all the ‘stuff’ in your life? And if you throw it away – where is away?
Live! Love! Laugh!Roz Townsend
