The trash can is a ritual container in which we sacrifice objects. But it makes a poor sacrifice in classical terms, because its composed of things which were once useful, but which have been reassigned a null value. Free boxes are a cool way of looking at objects and usefulness and I wonder what kinds of simple and profound changes one person could make in their life by focusing on making only useful waste products which can be put to some other purpose, instead of sacrificed to some nameless god. This goes beyond reduce, reuse, recycle.
- END -
ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
- Dumpster Diving & Food Sacrificed to Idols
- Rat-kicking!
- “Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage” Video
- The things I’ve seen
- Possessing Beauty
8 Comments
Seriously if even the people that I personally know could get their shit together enough to just share or pass on possessions to others once they no longer had a use for them then the death god of consumerism would start to go away.
People are so obsessed on on possessing status symbols (as you have been talking about here for the past week or so) and once things lose their “new thing shine” they do tend to sacrifice them into the sacrificial vessel of the garbage can. Its like newness is some vital force that dies in the object, like when you pick a flower or something, and the object can’t get it back, even if it is perfectly suited and in great working and cosmetic order for the purpose it was made.
Well its like what I was saying about not trying to possess beauty…
time botcher - last night you were in my dream again. This time I was outside a real estate office talking to some unknown person about this dank cabin I was trying to purchase out in the boonies. You were in the periphery, stepping in the scene long enough for me to know you were there, but not enough to for any real interaction. It’s like the scene in a trashy will ferrel comedy where something funny is going on in the background and is intentionally not front and center.
Anyway, next thing I know this Sikh guy who was working the counter in the Real Estate office chases you out and is totally pissed off. Apparently you had put this white couch inside their lobby and walked right out. He was yelling at you saying “what the hell you doing putting this in here? get it out right now!” And you just responded by saying “dude, seriously, it’s totally going to be ok. that’s where it’s supposed to be.” But it wasn’t like you were trying to make him not mad at you - you were more doing it like you were kinda trying to hypnotize him or just convince him of the higher significance but it wasn’t really working. i woke up laughing.
But if you’re not trying to possess beauty, why try and create it thru music or art? It seems to be a curse us humans have to contend with. When it comes to the ego, it’s either you have one or you don’t. Except, no matter how hard you try, either way you still got one. It can be glinting, golden brass balls or it can take the form of a pathetic shade-hidden sprout of near to nothingness, that has 300 FOOT TALL REDWOOD TREE written all over it. Yet an eager lawnmower could easily change those plans. The ego is shit, but then again, it’s all we’ve got.
Wanna argue? Contact my ego.
That said, trash is just trash. When you were a kid, I bet you, like me, just went and destroyed shit just to destroy it. Maybe not. But I could take this computer I am writing on and throw it out the window, collect it and then give it away for free (after extracting HDD). Who would take it? Nobody. But then I could also accidentally spill a glass of water on it too, attempt to sell it on CL and then run for the hills and hope they didn’t find me for ripping them off.
In other words. Everything is trash — if it’s not now, wait a little while. That’s why there is the old maxim about separating the “wheat from the chaff”. Been around a long time. As long as trash I imagine. But it’s what we’re dealing with here.
Those who can separate what is good from that which is bad just may be the elusive “gods” of refuse you contemplate. Nothing too esoteric about it at all I don’t think.
Eat a granola bar tomorrow and then try and sell the wrapper to someone. If you can sell it, you may have a lot in common with PT Barnum. Which isn’t so bad, because at least you’d get to hang out with elephants!
bio mimicry. Nature recycles.
ah, possessing beauty. such beauty found begins to age herself, unless that beauty radiates from within.
you`ll have to excuse me for digressing……..her beauty radiates from within.
good question to ask though tim.
the ritual of the garbage container has become so elaborate here that people are labling the different kinds of garbage they`ve disposed of and the city is getting more and more concerned about what is in those black shiny garbage bags.
i know in some cities you have to use clear bags so the garbage monks can see what your ritual has provided them.
a prophesy. prophets.
profit.
commerce.
it`s so clear now.
Simple, you’re not creating beauty or possessing it by doing Art, but committing yourself to Beauty, to a life lived in its presence, devoted to it at each moment and its communion with others.
Garrett, you remember my burning house dream with you in it, right?
Since Oscar The Grouch led to Truth, Beauty and Art I’ll leave something that fits in a tangential way too. This book documents people being arrested and enslaved by a State/Corporation alliance for being poor and black.
http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/index.php?section=15
The site I got it from has some other good links.
http://www.metafilter.com/72692/Taking...Crime-and-For-Economic-Reconstruction
One Trackback
[...] A comment from JK on a previous post which I thought deserved to be addressed in prime time: But if you’re not trying to possess beauty, why try and create it thru music or art? [...]