Take Out The Trash

Our garbage men come on Thursday, but you never know when they'll show up.  So, we put out the trash on Wednesday so we don't miss them.  A lot of people get irritated about being asked to take out the trash, but it's just another chore that has to be done.  Besides  you probably had something to do with all the trash that accumulated in your own house, so why not help take it out.

Garbage on the street is the literal approach to this subject, but there are others less direct.  So many of us keep things or allow things to remain in our live that do nothing but trash up & clutter the joint.  Often we become so used to it that we don't even notice it anymore, like hoarders, we all can develop clutter/trash blindness.
 
Whether it be actual physical things, emotional crutches or people in our lives, we all have stuff that takes up space & drags us down.  I've talked about the Up In The Air, Backpack philosophy before, but that seemed to focus on a one time application of the principles.  What I'm looking at now is the constant application of the principle of letting things go in our day to day lives that no longer provide any benefit.

That sounds mercenary & I know it, but sometimes we have to be a bit ruthless in our lives & remember that we have to come first.  Even if you are a parent or a spouse, if you don't take care of yourself, how are you going to take care of your children or spouse.  It's a very non-traditional & often resented idea that the self must come first, some would say it was downright Satanic.

Don't move, but take a look around the room your in right now.  What is near you that you haven't used in over six months?  What about a year?  What is still in your vicinity just because of sentimental reasons?  Are those reasons worth the clutter they bring?  Who's in your life right now that just drains your resources & provides nothing in return?  Who's just taking up space?  I won't tell you what to do, but I would ask you to consider if these people & things are really worth keeping.

Now on to the really scary concept. Are you being the collector of trash, the hoarder?  These people just freak me out.  I can't watch the show Hoarders or Animal Hoarders.  But it can be even worse. Not to be depressing , but are you the person in someone else's life just taking up space?  Are you the one sucking all the oxygen out of the room, yet giving nothing back?  Nasty questions, I know. So what to do, what to do?  If you can't find a way to bring something beneficial to the situation then perhaps you should consider taking yourself out of the situation.

Taking out the trash, no matter what the kind, can be cathartic. It can make space for new things or simply clear enough room to breath.  Remember... Taking out the trash, it's a good thing...

TV Failure...

Tuesday nights are usually pretty good TV times for me.  I have NCIS & NCIS: LA.  But last night was a total dud, a complete failure.  NCIS tried to cover the impact of a character's death who had left the show in 2005, over five years ago. The LA version is dealing with the mysterious background of the main character.  LA is treading very close to soap opera territory.

This must seem like an odd posting for this + blog, I just get irritated with things that are there just because.  These two episodes were just filler episodes, pure unwanted fluff.  This was one of the precious few episodes of these shows I will get this year.  Say I'll get 22 episodes this season, that means this one airing amounts to 4.5% of a wasted season & thats only if they don't waste another episode.  Then there are just plain, badly written episodes that pop up from time to time, most often around sweeps week.  That means by the end of the season after a couple of fluffisodes, a few badly written plots & a sweeps number, I'm losing 27.2% of the season to this drivel.

The writers & producers feel like they have to put something out there even if it is total crap.  I disagree.  If you can't put out a good product, don't put one out at all.  I'd rather miss an episode than be given a craptastic one.  There needs to be a Mike Holmes of TV production.

This isn't a filler entry. The point is that there are things in our life that are there just because we're used to them or we haven't decided what to do with/without them.  These things are clutter, they weigh us down.  They aren't worth having, just to have.  Many of us are hoarders of stuff, physical & not.  This junk eventually gains enough mass to occupy our whole lives.

I love the movie, Up In The Air.  You can check out the link to see the synopsis of the story but the main character develops a very interesting philosophy.  He asks, "What's in your backpack?"  He has you picture all the stuff you carry around everyday being put in the backpack & then setting it on fire.  He makes you realize that most of that stuff was totally inconsequential.  Then the character asks the people to do the same with the people in their lives.  He doesn't ask them to set the pack on fire but to examine the sheer immensity of the weight of all those relationships, expectations & obligations.  To examine which of those are really necessary, which are brining something good into our lives & which are just dragging us down.

Over the past couple of years, my roomie & me have been trying to clear out house of physical clutter.  I think we've definitely witnessed the positive effects removing that stuff has had on us.  All that clutter is stressing.  Having things or people in your life just because is not good enough. You don't have time for it all.  You don't have space for it all. You don't have the energy for it all.

I don't have the energy to waste on a bad NCIS episode.  I don't have the space to deal with junk I haven't used in years.  I don't have the energy to deal with people who don't bring anything  positive to my life, even if they have been in my life for some time.   I will continue to place the unnecessary in my backpack & when it's full, then burn, baby, burn.