Music And Memories

It’s a hard decision and not one that all would do but when you truly decide that you don’t need stuff you have to act fast. Cleaning out the house the other day Elena asked me to through out all my old music cassette tapes. I instinctively say “No”, but as the cleaning progressed I started to think about the last time I had actually listened to a music cassette. It would have been over a year ago and I to be honest the stereo that I struggled for a year to pay off back in the early 90’s now was never used. Yet it took it’s place in the wood and glass cabinet in the corner of the lounge. I thought to myself, why do I keep this junk? Is it the memory of how long it took to pay off? Or is that I have some kind if misguided value now placed on old technology.​

I pulled all the cassette covers out of the cases. If I really want this song again I can find it on the net or download it from one of the many sites available these days.
For any of you reading this, and have an old stereo sitting there you need to ask your self the same question, what’s it really worth, sell it or dump it?

With media now so digital you really don’t need the huge dinosaur in the corner of your over sized lounge.

Throwing away my cassettes was kind of liberating, it’s a small step but one in the right direction, however I did draw the line at throwing away my vinyl….. That stuff is worth money.!

As the bags full of cassettes were loaded onto the truck going to the dump that afternoon it was hard to throw the bags to the tip but as each bag was thrown I felt it was the right move.  For the rest of the afternoon thoughts  turned into thinking…..what else don’t I need.

I was reminded of our last trip to Elena’s home city of Chelyabinsk in Russia, where we lost our luggage for 10 days. We managed quite well with the few items we had on our backs and a couple of items we bought to get us by. We joked and said to each other, we really don’t need the bag. To be honest the more I thought about the lost bags the more I had convinced myself that I didn’t need it. In the bag were some of my favourite pieces of clothing and shoes, but as my mind was filled with new sensations and I was absorbing a new environment the contents of the bag became irrelevant.

​I wonder now of how many other items are really irrelevant as we change our thought process and our environment.