Cleaning Lesson
I have to say that cleaning and organizing my garden tool storage room revealed a startling fact. I have tools I never or seldom use. Take my hoe. It’s old and its handle decrepit. And then there’s the four-pronged cultivator. It’s handle is in an equal state of disrepair, its prongs bent and rusty. Neither has been held in my hands for years. My first inclination was to dispose of them mostly because I dig weeds by hand with the help of my turning fork these days.
Then I thought about how the hoe and cultivator have been around for years, doing solid work in gardens around the world, and perhaps I was missing a bet by letting my copies deteriorate. I might be able to do some of the work standing up rather than on my knees. So, now I’ve decided to replace them with sturdier versions and see how it feels. Besides, I think they’ll look good on the wall of the shed, and that feels important.
I’m pretty sure it feels important because I also learned that I have been derelict in my tool owning duties. Rust and decay overtaking my tools means I allowed the rust and decay to overtake my tools. That feels bad and might be an indication of some sort of mild character flaw which might be worth addressing in the spirit of self-improvement because trying to become a better version of myself seems an interesting challenge for my latter years, a thing worth doing.