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De-Privileging
We have been doing a lot of traveling lately, and I am about to go off to Brazil (OFF-Deep Woods in hand), where it has been raining for about 100 days straight it seems. The mosquitos are feasting on humans and sharing dengue fever microbes, especially in the poorest sections of the city of Rio. The situation could have been better handled by the powers-that-be, but we understand how that doesn't work well, don't we? A little forethought, some early interventions, and the situation might not be so dire.
Meanwhile, spending so much time on the New Jersey Turnpike offers many opportunities to listen in on the national conversations. I don't know what you are hearing, but it does feel to me like people do not really want to hear from either of the Dem. candidates right now. Pennsylvania aside, it feels like most have made up their minds and just want it to be over. The Democratic primary process feels like a party that has gone on way too long, everyone has moved on, and those whose party is yet to come would be happy to skip it and just friggin' vote already.
You may be wondering why Richard and I have not been around much lately. (You may wonder why others are not either, but we cannot speak for them!) We are selling our house. Richard has been spending a lot of time supervising painting, a new stove installation, and some repairs, and he has been packing up boxes, separating those items we are selling or giving away from those we are keeping. (NOTE: We are keeping too many items. This has been a point of much discussion and some contention, but it will all get sorted out in the end: we have a storage unit. That which does not fit, goes.). The house goes on the market in a few days, and we are counting on the location, not to mention the new paint, landscaping, and lack of clutter, to move this sale along.
We are selling our house because we have decided to do a certain amount of de-privileging. After spending ten years here, raising our kids and working for peace and justice, we have come to the end of a road. Our kids are off on their own and we are off to an uncertain, but less encumbered future.
De-privileging is a process of consciously shedding a number of items:
*extra-fancy clothing we know we won't need because we are not going to those parties anymore, ever again, please God
*furniture and gew-gaws that someone gave us only we can no longer remember who or why
*The books. Here is the contentious part, although to his credit, Richard has called in used books sellers and has put out a number of books on the sidewalk, where only my college geography textbook and the diaries of Harold MacMillan still sit, waiting for the right person to walk by and take them to their new home...
*expectations. We are shedding expectations, like we are shedding old sweaters.
To those of you who have felt privileged to share this house with us at times past, know that we are not shedding you or the memories we all share. We hope this blog will continue and we can all continue to be the truth-tellers of our neighborhoods and communities.
We don't know yet to where we will move. I have at least one more year at the university, and Richard's work can be done anywhere, as he works almost exclusively online these days (when he is not packing boxes, anyway). We are thinking about a passive solar house, built into a hill, with a southern exposure, perhaps straw bale walls, a small carbon footprint, and a garden.
Just enough, not too much.
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Awwwwwww.... Karen and Richard, I send my best wishes to you for a smooth transition during this exciting and scary time.
I will always appreciate you guys and will of course miss the house in which you've so graciously hosted me. But, I hope that your new path will be filled with good things.
Karen and Dick, I will certainly miss the DCP house!
I do hope you will find a nice place to live out the ideals for all of us. And wherever you go, we will always be with you.
Best wishes!
Good decision in putting the house on the market. Even though you live in a unique market, prices will only go down from here, at least in the short term. My advice to people is to use late 1990s values as a bottom for how low things can go.
Karen and Richard, all the best for all you are doing and planning. Shedding is the best experience. You won't be sorry. I've done it about 5 times now - each time more ruthlessly than the last. I was asked the other night in chat why I don't have a couch and what do I sit on to watch tv. I live in a 2 bedroom open-planned unit. My furniture is minimal as I was planning to rent *furnished*.
What do I sit on? An office chair that needs reassembling every few days. I bought it at a garage sale for $2. It has red and gold Christmas fabric stapled so poorly to the seat, that Christmas threads hang from it all year round. My next chair - from this year's book money - will be a reclining leather director's chair that can be used for all things I do whilst sitting. Somehow I ended up with 5 tables and 2 will soon go.
It is plenty big enough for me living alone. It is plenty big enough for my 2 sons and their families to come and stay. If I sleep out on a mattress on the living room floor with the 3 smallest grandchildren, the 2 couples can have a room each. Granny and the kids will camp out in the lounge, on the floor. The granny wouldn't have it any other way. The grandkids wouldn't have it any other way.
My books were the hardest to part with so I understand your angst there. Oh, and my piano. I actually cried when it was wheeled out the door. Apart from a dozen or so books I reach for, I don't miss anything. Moving has become much easier. My view is to move on to new places I've never been. But here in Launceston, Tasmania I've reached the end of my road. I may have to move to South Australia for the end. So far S.A. is the only state that has Natural Earth Burials. That's what I want - no fuss, no bother, no coffin, no environmentally unfriendly cremation, just a shroud and into the earth. They said they are expanding and if I can wait a while they'll eventually be operating down here too. So I may not need that move after all.
My carbon footprint is getting smaller all the time as I purge my life of extraneous clutter. My computer is perhaps the greatest power guzzler that I can't part with.
I have the smallest bookshelf now. It holds the 20 or so books that I can't live without. I've even parted with all but 1 copy of the 4 books I've had published that are now Out Of Print.
You will never regret de-privileging. And each purge will be easier and take less time. I love the ideas you have for the house you want to move into. It will be perfect.
Success! With everything. That's my wish for you and your family.
Moving? From a purely selfish perspective, I am sorry to hear the news. When my wife and I visit DC we won't know who to ask about restaurants.
Congratulations on your new, as yet unknown, new accommodations.
I have some really nice pictures of both you and Richard in your backyard. You both seem so absolutely comfortable, it is hard for me to imagine you won't be there.