Reply #13: I think I've done about the best I can with what I have. [View All]

I'm not really dissatisfied with the appearance, and I certainly don't mind hand-me-downs. I consider my library card my most important possession. Sometimes I buy new (important) books on the credit card, and when I've read them I give them to a librarian friend who reads them and then passes them along to friends and family (who include several other librarians with library purchasing decision power) before donating them to a needy community college library.

I certainly am happy that I can acquire things cheaply or for free. I actually had a DVD player that I'd bought new (cheap, but new), and after I'd seen all the movies I'd missed (that included most of the classics, most from the library and quite a few from free trials with DVD-by-mail companies) I couldn't stand seeing it just sitting there and I donated it to a childrens' charity.

What set me off was that I'm trying to stop smoking, and I looked at my cigarette rolling machine and realized that it is a top-of-the-line model (I've had it several years and it cost about $40). Then I looked around and realized that absolutely nothing else I have is top-of-the-line. Then I remembered that I didn't just choose the cigarette machine, but struggled for years with cheaper models that were harder to use or broke down quickly before I bought it.

There are still a few things I think I need. A small table (my big dictionary, purchased at a friends of the library book sale, is sitting on a cardboard box covered with a throw I won at a senior center raffle) and a small file cabinet, both of which will come from thrift stores as soon as I find them. And a base for my mattress--IKEA has one for $50 which I plan to get as soon as my friend with the pick-up truck has time to help me get it home.

It isn't that I don't have new things, or that the things I do have are hand-me-downs, it is that I realized that I don't have a CHOICE. Or could it be that I actually made a subconscious choice? If I have everything that I need, why is having a choice important to me?