Life Lint
Monday, January 18, 2010Life lint. We're drowning in it. (See Lego man visual aid at right.) These bits and pieces of life that slough off as we go throu...
Monday, January 18, 2010

Life lint. We're drowning in it.
(See Lego man visual aid at right.)
These bits and pieces of life that slough off as we go through the daily routine are embarrassing, unpleasant, and annoying. (Among other less appealing objects, Archie discovered a stray Smartie under the couch cushions while I was trying to take pictures. And no, I can't believe I'm posting a picture of what's under my couch cushions either.)
No sooner do I clear it up than someone comes home and empties their pockets on the bathroom counter, or the stuff winds up in the laundry.
To the right is a collection of things that have found their way through the washer, and sometimes the dryer. It includes some fairly large items... yes, that is a dead cell phone on the left, and the smiley face was created out of a glop of drywall mud by my son-in-law. I haven't had the heart to throw it away yet.

To the left is the "extra" drawer on my hubby's side of the bathroom cabinet. Why do we even have extra drawers and extra closets and extra shelves? Our garages overflow and so do our waistbands. Americans have storage units for their storage units.
Our lives are, as we like to say, FULL.
But what are they full of?
And just like I'd rather close the drawer, hide the laundry room, and put the cushions back without cleaning up the gunk, I'd rather disguise my fat cells and ignore them than go to all the effort to shrink them down to normal size. (In case you are confused, that "effort" is called exercise, and even after five years of consistent physical activity I STILL have to do battle with my flesh to push play on the DVD and make myself move.)
If all this tangible stuff makes me feel overwhelmed (refer to Lego man photo) what about the spiritual, mental, and emotional LINT I've been ignoring? Fragments of conversations that caused emotional pain, misunderstood or twisted pieces of religious doctrine that caused confusion, those "minor" sins that get shoved into a corner instead of brought out and dealt with -- gossip, faultfinding, worry. Ouch.

There are, believe it or not, whole web sites dedicated to finding uses for dryer lint. For those of us who just can't bear to throw anything out, I suppose. My favorite ideas? Draft stoppers, donations for bird nests, or lint spun into yarn. Yeah. Because everybody wants a lint-colored sweater, right? (The stick pins to the right are made from lint. Humans are nothing if not creative.)
Hmm. Isn't the season of Lent coming up? Maybe I'll use that 40 days to give up lint, for Lent. It will make moving so much easier! Anyone want to join me?