Lightening the Load

I am not prone to packrat-ism. I’ve spent too much of my life lugging suitcases around to believe that accumulating goods is worth my while. Yet recently even I have been shedding some weight.

In our modern world many are supremely privileged to have the capacity to pursue arts and crafts. Think about it: a couple of centuries ago you probably wouldn’t have had the spare change to buy a guitar, even if you could find one (when were they invented, anyway?). Here in PNG, that usually remains the case. Because people live a subsistence lifestyle off the land, most have little pocket money. What money they do have often goes towards school fees for their kids or basic necessities, like some store-bought rice or second-hand clothes. I am extremely wealthy compared to them.

So I’m passing on some of my goods to the community here. My guitar? I’ve had it for around 5 years and loved it, especially the smell of the wood when opening the case. I sometimes even made it sound all right! I have sold my guitar to a deserving MK who, at the age of 12 or 13, is already better than me.

Camera. I’ve had it for three years now. A decent DSLR is worlds better than your average compact digital. I used it during village living back in 2010 to get some great shots of life in PNG, and more recently have been capturing my beautiful daughter as she grows at an alarming rate. (I keep wanting to push the ‘slow down’ button on Tikvah, but can’t seem to find it.) The camera went to a young Papua New Guinean lady working in a partner organization here in PNG. She has been trained in media and is responsible for communications and promotional material. I think it will serve her well.

Other loved items have been passed on. Each of these represents an opportunity, and I’m grateful to have had them and to be able to share them. Life is brighter when there are avenues for creativity.

In addition to the good reasons of 1) sharing the blessings I’ve received and 2) not having to lug the stuff back across the globe, there’s a third good reason to be selling these things: we’re going to be going back to school this year… and school costs a lot of money. I suppose that is good motivation for paying attention in class.