An old bowling ball reminds me… “Keep the memories, not the stuff!

“Bonnie did a WANTED posting for an old 10 pin bowling ball on the Ottawa, Canada Recycling Cafe / Bulletin board.  She wants to make a bubbler fountain (see pic) out of it.And I’m the (ex)Freecycler who made her wishes come true and gave Bonnie a bowling ball. And, hey Bonnie, I’m looking forward to the pictures of the old ball after it gets morphed into a fountain. Who’da thought…

It’s just fascinating, the thought process that simple request for a bowling ball triggered for me. I thought to myself… “yeah, I’m sure I still have that old 10 pin bowling ball in the basement.” Sure enough, I looked around and found it. There it was, an old black 16 pound, well used, scuffed up bowling ball. Brought back a lot of good old memories that ball did. I even won a couple of totally meaningless league trophies using it when I was a Probation Officer bowling with my RCMP colleagues in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba way back in the 60′s. (Probably still have those old trophies somewhere too.)

SOME FULL CIRCLES LESSONS FROM AN OLD BOWLING BALL

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When I started reflecting about that old bowling ball, I realized that I had last used it when we lived in Regina in 1971 — 36 years ago. Since then, that old ball had been moved 8 times and had travelled 14,000 km! 14,000 km without ever bowling another game. It just got merged in with all the other old, unused “stuff”. (Wonder how much it costs to load and unload 16 pounds 8 different times, and ship 16 pounds 14,000 km, and store it in a secure, heated warehouse for 36 years??? After all, it always costs somebody somewhere, doesn’t it…?)

Got me thinking! What the heck have we got here? A home? Or a warehouse for old, unused, forgotten stuff. How much smaller could our home be if we didn’t have to warehouse a pile of forgotten, out-of-sight, out-of-mind stuff. After all, it costs real green $$ to purchase and maintain the space we need to accommodate that “stuff”. We have to keep it warm in the winter, cool in the summer. But, warehousing and storing a grubby old bowling ball for 36 years?? What are we thinking! As comic George Carlin once said… “A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”

So, I vowed to myself that before we move the next time (we’ll have to pay the moving costs the next time …), we’re going to be brutal in our cleanup. We’ve got a lot of useless baggage all mixed up with the good stuff. Got to make sure to keep the memories, not the stuff!

The Full Circles lesson… KEEP THE MEMORIES, NOT THE STUFF!
Keeping, storing, transporting unused stuff is NOT a Full Circles “best practice”.

So what’s in YOUR idle assets inventory? Do you have the RIGHT stuff? Or, am I unique?

Eric Snyder
Fullcircles.org
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Are you inspired? Do YOU want to make a bowling ball fountain? Check out these links for information: (thanks Meg)

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/junk/2003045930024117.html
http://www.offthegardenpath.com/?p=30
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/art/396107588.html
http://www.dlsglass.com/bowling-ball-fountain.html