Thread: Disposable Society

Disposable Society

We throw away a variety of things throughout the course of our lives. Whether they become broken, worn out, obsolete or boring, our own personal landfills never stop accumulating with things that are unworthy of being kept, maintained or fixed. Society is now consuming and disposing at a rate that would make our forefathers' heads spin. From microwaves to marriages, countless things that play important roles in our every-day lives are now just one problem or imperfection away from being disposed of and replaced.

On the wall in my living room, hangs an oak Seth Thomas wall clock (circa 1885) that has been in my family for four generations. Like the modern, ultra-functional, atomic wall clock which hangs in my kitchen, it is reliable and does its job of keeping perfect time. It doesn't have the luxury of radio-controlled atomic time that automatically sets itself, nor is it equipped with a digital weather station or remote caller ID sensor. It does only its basic purpose... it keeps time, striking its bells every quarter hour and the gong on the hour. Compared to my multi-functional, space-age kitchen clock, it is a dinosaur. But some day it will still be ticking and chiming away while its brainy counterpart is setting at the curb, awaiting its fate among other broken or obsolete items that no longer serve a viable purpose in my life.

Since its creation, the oak clock has sounded off nearly four and a half million times. It must have been immensely satisfying for its creator to hear that first chime 126 years ago, after all the hard work he put into making it. Created in an era before moving assembly lines and plastic molded parts, this clock was someone's child—a work of art, hand-crafted and fine-tuned with pride and passion. The maker not only built this clock to be pleasant on the eyes and ears, he built it to last, to be maintained and repaired. As a result, his love, passion and dedication are immortalized in his work over a century later. Unfortunately, this man's trade is quickly going the way of the shoe cobbler. Obsolete in a throw away society, the few that remain will soon be forgotten and left behind like an old pair of sneakers.

We currently live in an exciting era of invention and technology. Items such as computers and phones for example, are becoming smarter and faster at an incredible pace. As a result, the frustration of owning an outdated device is now commonplace. We are constantly being enticed by new products and technology—something new that makes us view things we currently own as inferior or no longer fashionable. While growing up, we had the same rotary telephone and the same old console TV in our house for as long as I can remember. I connected four cords together so that I could carry the phone anywhere in the house and talk in privacy. It was genius. I thought it couldn't get any better than that. Well, along came the cordless and suddenly my twisted bundle of cords seemed downright silly, but for at least sixteen years we used that same old rotary telephone without any major technological advances that would have made it outdated or obsolete. And the old, heavy, console tube TV we watched together for all those years, it's still there, yet to be discarded and replaced by a slimmer, lightweight widescreen with superior functions and a crystal clear display. Sometimes when I go home to visit, my father and I will still sit in front of that old tank of a set and enjoy a football game together just as we did when I was a child. Since I moved out on my own, my lust for new technology has led me to buy and discard countless phones, TVs, computers, etc. I will not be talking on the same phone and watching the same TV sixteen years from now; in fact, I will have probably consumed and disposed of more in one decade than my father has in his entire life.

My grandparents recently celebrated fifty-five years of marriage—fifty-four and a half years longer than my sister's short lived attempt at matrimony. As with any marriage, my grandparents' long relationship has not been free of tribulations. They have faced many problems along the way, but none have been stronger than their love, loyalty, appreciation and perseverance. Like a fractured bone, problems which they've given the proper time and care in order to heal, have seemed to make their bond even stronger. My sister's marriage on the other hand, seemed to end before it even started. After a five-year engagement, the marriage was given up on only sixth months after they exchanged vows. The "irreconcilable difference" was in regards to which state they were going to live in—something that seemed worthy of compromise to me. Society is now rapidly disposing of something much more disturbing than outdated electronics. Our personal landfills are not only accumulating cheap manufactured goods or last year's iPhones, they are filling to the brim with broken relationships. Fortunately, young people such as my sister have not yet dismissed the idea of marriage and still give it a shot, but times sure have changed. Fifty percent of husbands and wives now see their marriages as unfixable and ultimately end up throwing them away. We are now just as likely to be parted from our spouse by divorce as by death. Unlike the oak clock in my living room, relationships have become disposable—tossed to the curb because they are not worthy of people's time and effort that is needed for them to be maintained and repaired.

In the constant cycle of consuming, disposing and replacing that has became the norm in today's society, many have lost touch with what it means to appreciate and care for things in their lives. This disposable attitude has transcended material items and now rings true with how people view and interact with others as well. My clock has many parts that work together to make something worthy of being enjoyed and cherished. When one part fails, the entire clock fails to work in the way that it should, but I do not throw it away. I think of all the passion and hard work that went into building it, the love and attention that I've invested in maintaining it, what it has given me in return, and I get it fixed. Unlike many other things in my life, my clock will never become disposable.

Look on the bright side.

The idea of disposable marriage could mean it’s just a tad easier to sample the goodies from a wide field without the need to be unfaithful to do so.

When my paternal grandfather was in his 70's, a few years before I was born, he and my maternal grandfather, a dozen years younger, decided they wanted to travel a bit and make the traveling pay. They bought an old Ford Model AA van, used my maternal grandfather's credit to load it up with Seth Thomas clocks, and set out to tour rural Mississippi selling clocks along the way. They were gone about three months, and when they came home they had sold all but two of the clocks. They had decided to keep one each for themselves. I inherited my maternal grandfather's clock, and when my son was married passed it on to him. Like your's, it's still keeping time. Of course it's much younger, probably made around 1930, but the style would be much the same.

A fond fantasy of mine is that there are a few dozen rural households around Mississippi where a prized family heirloom is a Seth Thomas clock sold by my grandfathers. I don't want to think that somewhere along the years they were tossed out by a younger generation that put no value on the combined beauty and utility of a genuine Seth Thomas oak-cased clock.

Brock, you have demonstrated considerable talent for both fiction and non-fiction. You have a bright future as a writer. Thank for for this reminder that there are objects, and, far more important, relationships, that are worth holding on to.

LOL... I never thought of it that way Ox!

Garza, Thank you for sharing your story about your grandparents and the clocks. Things sure have changed... some for the better and some for the worse.

I think the trend is going back to hand-made. In an increasingly anonomous (sp?) society. We want something that is unique to us, made just for us. More and more people are thinking like you.