My favorite quote from the book thus far:
"You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug.
Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."
I love it.
It reminds me of my resistance to permanence.
I would like to think that I can walk away from all my possessions tomorrow if need be. I won't be "that lady" on the lifeboat, clutching armfuls of photographs, clothes, jewelry, etc. Nope.
I'm not sure I'm proud of this, but it simply exists in my brain and it might be a good thing to investigate.
So I did. I noticed a theme. All my life I've been preparing for some inevitable apocalypse:
- I won't get glasses. What if my plane crashes in the Rockies, I lose my eyewear, and can't lead the survivors to safety?
- I won't fix my front teeth, which I broke learning how to ride a bike in First Grade. They would have to file them down to pegs and then cap them. What if the caps fall off? OMG.
- I won't buy new housewares. Something akin to imprisonment comes out of it. Suddenly I'm working my big fancy job just to pay for the shiny new crap I bought at Ikea. Hence my love of Palahniuk's quote.
- I want to build a self-sustaining house completely of re-used and biodegradable materials. Satisfying thought to leave it to the earthworms, beetles, and varmints when I'm gone.
Hmm...What apocalypse is coming...?
And why do I want this chandelier for my stairwell so badly?
1 comment:
But, who can forget:
"In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway."
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