Do
you have anything in your refrigerator that has gone bad? Why is it
still there? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page
1096).
Why
is due maintenance often a victim of negligence? It is more readily
understood if maintenance is avoided because of cost. For example,
putting on a new roof or replacing a marginally operating air
conditioner are such examples. But what about those cases when the
cost is negligible? Why do we put off maintenance then?
Acquisition
and disbursement is more properly seen as a cycle. My wife Kathy saw
it this way. Whenever she would buy a new dress or blouse, she would
recycle an old one giving it to a thrift store or a friend who might
want it.
To
my misfortune I tend to have the opposite behavior. Rather than
recycling old shoes, for example, I just put them under the bed with
the rest.
The
basic problem for me is that I identify with the old shoes. To throw
away a pair of my old shoes seems personal--kind of as if I were
tossing out part of me. The polar opposite of this maintenance
problem is when one does not identify enough with the object in
question. A condition of outright estrangement and alienation can
prevail. Often this takes on a negative snowballing character. Say,
I have a car that is causing me some trouble. I might take an active
dislike for the car and "punish" it by neglecting even
routine service. I can be looking for a good excuse—a mechanical
problem providing me a convenient tipping point—to get rid of the
car entirely.
Like
with my wife Kathy, it is preferable in these matters if emotion can
be limited and objectivity allowed to take the upper hand.
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