repair or replace

  Would you rather repair or replace? I think that tells a great deal about a person. It speaks to loyalty and respect. Just how quickly are you willing to just throw something out? Does it matter if it is a material thing or a friendship? My thinking is the reaction will pretty much be the same. It is a part of who we are as a person. Sometimes called sentimentality, the desire to hold onto something is strong in me. I always want to repair rather than replace. I am comfortable with the familiar. I suppose that is why I have always been reluctant to adopt the latest fashion and fads. It's also the reason I will not readily adopt new political and social ideology. My belief is if you want things to be stable, you have to quit changing them all the time. Find what works and stick with that is my motto. Everything old will be new again given time. The only thing you have to decide upon is the starting point. I started in 1953. 

 My thought about repair or replace came innocently enough. The knob on the top of my percolator coffee pot came off. Like a lot of things these days it was made of plastic. Over time, with heat and use the plastic broke and so the top would no longer stay on. Now it is interesting to note that a percolator is, in my opinion, a bit expensive compared to the Mr. Coffee type that most people would have. I want to say my pot was about sixty dollars. Now realize it isn't anything fancy or extremely large, just an electric percolator like your grandmother may have had. So I wanted to repair that top. Searching online I discovered you can not just buy a replacement knob for the pot, the company does not do that. You have to buy the whole deal. But I didn't quit that easily and did find glass replacement knobs.

  Advertised to fit all coffee pots with a 13/16 inch hole I did a quick measurement. Well, seems like that is right. It wasn't. The hole in the pot was in millimeters, 20 mm to be exact. Problem being 13/16 is just a bit larger than that, close but no cigar. I would have to modify that opening. I have to say that lid is made of a quality stainless steel. Stainless, in case you are not aware, is quite a difficult metal to cut, grind or drill. Suffice to say I had to open my arsenal of tools to enlarge that hole enough to allow the repair. But, all is well that ends well, the top is on and perking. It is a sense of satisfaction having made the repair. It isn't about saving a few dollars, it was about fixing it. 

 We do ask ourselves, is it worth it? Many times the cost of repair isn't worth it, that's when we justify it anyway saying it has sentimental value. We call it crafting when we make things at twice the cost of buying it too. But, it is worth it. It is that way with everything in life when you stop to think about it. Today we are living in a throw away society. You've heard that a thousand times and that is simply because that is the truth. We have become jaded in that regard. Always wanting something bigger, better, cheaper, easier, and we want it all now! Really it isn't anything new, we have always wanted that. There was a period in America, and in the world in general, at the early part of the twentieth century, when we were all reminded of that. It was called the great depression. People learned quickly to repair what they had, and learned to make do with a lot less. Waste not, want not became the motto of the day. If you are a boomer your parents remembered that and your grandparents lived through that. Remember how your grandparents saved everything? Yeah, there was a good reason for that. 

 But, you say that was a simpler time. Yes it certainly was as far as technology went. Things were pretty basic and could be repaired. Many things today can not be repaired at all, just replaced. Ironically they are often called durable goods. A bit of a misnomer in todays world. On the flip side of that you weren't just left helpless when something broke. You could make a repair, even if only temporarily, to get you out of a jam. Today too many of us are just left helpless. But that all involves material goods and services. I am also thinking about relationships. Do you repair them or just discard them?

 Well that is another topic altogether and a complicated one. You do have to decide on the other persons worth, are they worth the effort. For me there does come a point where it just isn't worth it anymore. When whatever it is they have to contribute to my life just plain isn't worth it. And yes that is a selfish act but one that is also a necessity. It doesn't involve wishing harm or ill on the other person. It doesn't involve any of that. It is just a simple matter of what is best for  yourself. Really it is a balance between your investment and their worth to you. Consider marriage. When I said, I do, I went all in, that was my investment. I will not replace that, I will try to repair it every single time! That is the worth I place on my wife. That being said you have to understand the worth I assign to her, or to anyone else, does not define their worth to others, or to themselves. It is solely their worth to me. 

 Self worth is the hardest value to assign. It requires complete honesty with ourselves. I don't know about others but I have a million reasons, excuses and explanations for everything and anything I have done, am doing, or plan to do! It s difficult to understand when others do not see the worth in you. It isn't that you believe you don't have flaws, but they aren't that bad. You are worth repairing! They should at least try. I think maybe when it comes to relationship it is a matter of moral compromise. How much are you willing to compromise to effect a repair? When the cost is too high, you have two choices. Repair or Replace.