“Without adventure, civilization is in full decay.”
- Alfred North Whitehead
I'm not sentimental. My wife, for example, has to constantly remind me why we keep
certain family heirlooms in our house . . . because of the sentiment behind them. I'm
much more of a utilitarian; I'm often making grand statements like, "I'm giving away all
the clothes that I haven't worn in the last year." I'll admit to keeping a few special
things around from my family, like the Bible my parents signed and gave me when I
graduated high school. Yes, by the way, I did graduate high school.
My lack of a "sentimental side" breaks down when it comes to outdoor gear and,
specifically, space in our garage. I think having multiple bikes and multiple kayaks and
multiple kayak paddles and multiple bike helmets and multiple backpacks . . . and . . .
and . . . is great! Each piece of gear has a certain functional appeal, a slight variation
that might make it useful out in the woods at some point in the future. Not to mention
being able to oufit your friends when they come to visit, or convince the home owners
association that you're running a gear store from inside your house. Sentiment has
nothing to do with it.
I bring this up because today is Valentines Day, the most sentimental of holidays, and
I'm putting my V-Day plan together for this evening. Of course, I've had this plan in
mind for weeks now . . . I'm just now getting around to executing the plan . . . right.
Since we're close to putting our house on the market I've had to clean up our garage
and sort through all the gear I've collected over the years. I figured, as part of my
Valentines gift to my wife, I could apply the same minimalist mindset to my outdoor
gear and identify the most useful items and discard the rest. I'd do a real bang up job
on that garage! She'd be thrilled to be able to park a car in our two-car garage. Better
still, when realtors begin showing our house next month, people won't think we're a
satellite campus for Outward Bound.
It's just not that easy. Having 4 HID lights can be very handy, although I've actually
never had a chance to use them all together and reap the rewards of all that storing,
charging, testing, and re-charging of the HID lights. HID lights don't occupy much
space. It's nice to have so many. Just in case. I can't really part with them.
Repeat the above logic for shoes, packs, and just about everything else and I find that I
can hardly part with anything if I consider it "outdoor gear." I did give away an old
school road bike to Morgan, who intends to make it a fixed gear and donate it to a
poor bikeless bastard, but I've had trouble parting with just about anything else. I even
have old tubs of Perpetuem in the garage, for goodness sake!
So, I didn't make much Valentines Day progress on the garage and I'll be paying a visit to
our local florist and the wine and cheese shop instead. Come to think of it, I better
get on the road! I hope your V-Day plans, whether you're sentimental or not, go a bit
more according to plan.