stuff and substance

 Maturity is enjoying what you have, not hoping for what you'll get. And by that I don't mean what others may give you, but rather the desire to get more stuff. Maybe I'm growing up after all as I find myself doing just that. In fact I find myself getting rid of stuff these days, the stuff interfering with my enjoyment. I'm thinking it is a process, the division of stuff and substance. The things we are willing to get rid of is the stuff, the things we keep the substance. 

 Now material things are not the substance of life, I'm not going to say that. The material things are here to make our lives easier, or to serve as reminders of the past. If they aren't doing either of those things, it's just stuff. Now my stuff can become your substance. Those are the things we treasure for one reason or another. Their " substances " lies in an emotional attachment, a memory. For instance I have a mantle clock that belonged to my great grandmother. That clock was some of her stuff and now it contains substance, to me. I can't say with certainty how she felt about that clock as she passed when I was about five years old. But I know that clock sat in her home, for years afterward, unnoticed, uncared for and ignored. To my great grandfather is was just stuff. He had a lot of stuff! When the time came he didn't mind parting with that stuff. And I think I'm starting to understand that. It's a process, getting rid of stuff. It has to be done a little at a time, the " removing a band aid " just won't work in this situation, the shock being too great. No, it has to accomplished by transference. 

 I think in these modern times, at least in my time, we have all gotten used to having stuff. We heard all about making do, and taking care of things, but we always got new stuff. Even when that stuff was hand me downs, they were new stuff to us. 

 We all like to tell the stories of how we went without and how difficult times were in the past. I know I've told my children and grandchildren about that. I didn't have air conditioning in my house! I didn't have a telephone of my own. I had to walk to school uphill three miles both directions and do my chores when I got home. Yesterday I heard my granddaughter complaining about having roll up windows in her car. Yes, she has car without power windows! She has to roll the window down, manually, when in the drive up lane. And, omg, if someone wants to talk to her from the passenger side of the car, she can't roll that window down, they have to open the door. Very inconvenient, why it's like driving a stagecoach or something. I'm certain that is something she will one day be telling her children. When I was her age air conditioning and an eight track player in the car would have been extraordinary. 

 I don't know it just seems like we spend a great deal of time and effort getting stuff. We go to work and say to ourselves, one day I'll get this or that. When we are younger we want stuff, the popular stuff mostly. Clothes, cars, games, whatever the newest thing is. We want all the cool stuff. Then we enter a phase of getting what we think of as the necessary stuff, a home, a mate, and still all the popular stuff. After a while we begin to care a lot less about stuff, especially the popular stuff. We think of that as being " grown up. "The popular music loses its' appeal as does the current fashion. Then there is a shifting of values. What the younger people are embracing as " acceptable " begins to go against the grain a bit. It starts with small things really but over time those things become upsetting. That's when the things begin to grate on our own value system, what we sometimes call morals. It forces us to look a bit closer at what we ourselves value. 

 I'm thinking that is when we also begin to sort out the stuff from substance. We realize that we can leave stuff behind, but it is our substance that is important. It is the substance of the previous generation that forms the world today. When we see the next generation discarding our substance as stuff, that is upsetting. 

 In the past I'm thinking those changes took longer, over more generations. It is said the older you get the faster time becomes and I agree with that. The world is speeding up and things are changing a lot faster. It's the same with us, we hesitate to discard some stuff, never know when you might need that. Still there is a time when you realize that you don't need that anymore, most likely never will and it gets discarded. That's what happens with stuff. Ah, but our substance? That is a different thing altogether. Substance is what we hold onto, what gives us strength. It is what we call character. The stuff with meaning. Yes it may be just stuff to you but holds much value to me. Don't be so quick to discard it. 

 Today it appears the whole world is in a rush. Anxious to discard the lessons of the past and go boldly where no man has gone before! The truth of the matter is, man has gone there before. I believe there is little that can be said or thought about that hasn't happened before. Yes we tend to believe in our arrogance, our technological advances, that we have the answers. And yet, we have little control over the most basic of things. We can't control the environment, although we like to delude ourselves into thinking so, mother nature just laughs. A virus is loose and kills thousands and what is our response? We can develop a vaccine. And there is racism! Yes, we are aware that people don't always embrace each other because of differences. 

 I know all of this has been said before, by the older generation. Todays children will one day be saying the same thing, with just as much sincerity and angst as I'm saying it today. I do have a genuine concern for what kind of world my grandchildren will be living in. More so for great grands and beyond if that is to be. We need to embrace more substance and less stuff! Or as I like to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!