Once again, we are in the throes of resolution season and we are starting to see the seasonal fitness influx that accompanies those promises. We know we don’t keep them all, but each year we seem to see more people staying longer or take a more active interest in staying healthy.
I just heard some other resolutions that I thought ranked up there as actually workable. A friend of ours has the cutlery set they got when they were married a number of decades ago and believe me, this isn’t the stuff that you get from a big box store. This is the gold-plated, hand-polished, few-thousand-dollar set that gets ceremoniously brought out on very special occasions along with grandma’s/great-grandma’s fine china, then hand washed and nestled back into the padded box to wait for the next extraordinary gathering. Our friend figured out it was worth several hundred dollars for each dinner it was used and thus begat the resolution that these utensils now hit general circulation and get used as everyday knives and forks along with the fine china.
Our particular generation collects “stuff”. Not only our stuff, but the stuff that came from our parents or others around us and has attached a value to it that often has moved elsewhere. An example would be the rock maple, high-end furniture that my parents scrimped and saved to purchase pieces here and there, when they could afford it, through the ’60s and ’70s.
Flash forward to when we cleaned out the house a year or two ago only to discover that the market was flooded with the same stuff because everyone that bought it at top dollar back then has left their homes or passed on and it has become valueless. Perhaps a bit of a generality as there is always someone that appreciates the quality but it is the exception, not the rule — what we think has value, our children don’t necessarily agree. Case in point: we asked our kids a while back what specific stuff of ours they might particularly want in the future and the first question was, “Are you dying? Do you have cancer?” When they discovered we were healthy and just trying to make sure our treasure went to appropriate offspring, there was polite coughing, a few hems and haws and a respectful change of subject. Our treasure is not their treasure.
So lesson learned. This year’s resolution can be applied from fitness to furniture — use it or lose it. No longer will the thick, fluffy guest towels languish in the closet while we dry off with those thin fabric cloths soaked by the first wipe. Get those Egyptian 1,500 thread count guest linens back into general circulation (wait a sec, we use flannel) and break out the crystal wine glasses for suppers instead of the mismatched thrift store set you have now. Maybe pass on some of those exceptional books you have treasured, but will most likely not read again, to someone special to enjoy and before everyone stops reading altogether. Go for a swim, walk or skate with your kids, grandkids, mate or a friend before you can’t anymore — even if it’s just to watch them. That would be a good resolution.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.