Take Good Care

The Charlotte Observer recently featured a great article by Nicole Brodeur in the Uplift section. It’s about Frank and Gloria Witt, who have been married for 71 years, and the 1949 Sunbeam model T-20 toaster that they received as a wedding present and still use daily. Frank explained that growing up during the Great Depression taught them to take care of what they had so it lasted as long as possible. It’s easy to see that Frank and Gloria take really good care of each other too.

That article made me think of this month’s Eco Tip, “Fix It, Don’t Nix It: Repairing Can Prolong Life of Products,” on AwakeningCharlotte.com. It begins, “America is the Godzilla of consumerism, and far too many of the products we buy are disposable or designed to become obsolete.” Like many other people, I’ve grown up thinking of a toaster as a throwaway item—something so inexpensive that it makes more sense to replace it than to fix it when it’s broken. I now understand the environmental implications of that attitude, but what I hadn’t fully considered until reading Frank and Gloria’s story is that limiting your intake of things to what you really value and need, and taking really good care of those things, is a practice that translates to all areas of life, including relationships (when all parties involved are committed to good care).

Hopefully we’ll all be better caretakers of things and people as a result of COVID-19. What we’re going through pales in comparison to the Great Depression, and I hope it stays that way, but I know that I’ve already fixed a couple of things around the house with what I have (and didn’t know I had), just because I didn’t want to venture into a home improvement store. Frank and Gloria’s son, Christopher, sums it up nicely: “If you treat something really well, then it will last.”

Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving and good care this November.

 Shannon McKenzie