The Cracked Acorn: Things

Those of us who grew up in the post WWII era know that things were not plentiful and most were in sorry condition. One worn-out car driven by my mother almost took out the farm gates. It was traded for one that had a severe engine noise, then there was the one that stalled on every hot day.

Eventually factories turned to making all kinds of things for the home and automobiles by the thousands. Times definitely improved and if you had a little money most things could be bought on time. I learned early in childhood that things can let you down at the worst moments. It was still the age when you might have a friend that had taken some night courses in how to repair TVs and radios. Remember this was the vacuum tube age. You could pull a tube and test it at the local drugstore and buy its replacement. Sewing machines and household appliances worked the same way.

There was always a simple way of fixing them.

Those days are gone, mainly to the shores of other countries. Things are not repaired anymore. They are replaced. If anything happens to the thing of your dreams, most of the time it is headed to the landfill. These things comes in a variety of sizes and colors with built in obsolesce. Forget the idea of buying your last TV set or possibly your last automobile. Most things do last longer but no repairs and forget about finding another one like the one you are throwing away.

Severe problems are facing our planet. One threatening environmental issue is how to deal with MSW (Municipal Solid Waste). The average U.S. person daily throws out 5 pounds of trash. The yearly accumulation is 600 million tons. It has to go somewhere and this is the problem. The highest points on most counties are nicknamed “Mount Trashmore.” Recycling sounds good but it threatens jobs in the packaging industry. States have not figured out who is going the bear the burden of the cost to reverse the trend to throw every “thing” away – to go into a landfill.

India has a population of a billion people. Urban dwellers number 400 million. Mountains of trash are creating cancer causing fumes. Burning it fouls the air. Over a million people are making their living and supporting their families by collecting trash. A whole new caste of people have sprung up who pick over the heaps of trash to find things to sell or wear or YES! even to eat. They are known as the rag pickers.

There was a photo exhibit at the Reston U.S. Geological Survey showing this group of people at work digging into the piles of trash. These people number more than the Katrina Hurricane victims. Who will support them if trash is ever done away with. If we “waste not, want not” there will be lots of issues to deal with. Trash has become big business all because of “things.”

We shouldn’t allow our things to possess us. Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.