That's right, the dump - the place where people throw things away. She weathers the stench of diapers and rotting fruit to look for furniture and other household items that affluent neighbors are throwing away.
This morning, she sent me and her other children photographs of the pieces she recently snatched up, took home, and restored. I've seen comparable items in second-hand furniture stores along Mass Ave.
Value varies from person to person. A lot is learned from one's parents, some is acquired from major influencers like that rebel you glomed onto in high school or the sleak chain-smoking co-ed on the Italy year abroad... But one way or the other, we each develop an individual sense of value.
Much of my value was picked up from my parents. A lot has to do with conservation of resources as I'm rather obsessed with my eco footprint. But beyond trying to live greenly, I have a deeply lodged belief - an impacted doctrine, if you will - that if something still fulfills its purpose, why go out and get a new one?
I worked for over a year in advertising, right out of college. A "career building" computer program spat out Advertising after I entered my likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses and expectations for an employment setting. But I quickly learned that I don't have the stomach for consumer product advertising; for telling someone they need a shiny new one when the old one still works just fine.
We all know that there are some major economic troubles today, and that people are tighter with their money than the government and economists would like. But it is simply the easier view to say: "America is run on consumption. We have to get people blindly buying again, or the engine on our economy won't start up."
But I would like to a reinvention in Americans' sense of value. And I'm proud that my stepmother has been shopping at the dump.
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