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repair, re-use trumps recycle, re-purchase


These scissors have been a part of my ‘riverside tool box’ for a lot of years. They have a nice edge, cut well, seem heavy enough for shop use, and have required no maintenance.

Until a couple days ago when the pivot pin broke, turning the pair of scissors into two useless pieces of plastic and steel.

Fortunately I have tools, assorted hardware and ingenuity. Rather than a trip to the new scissor store, I drilled the pivot point out to fit a bolt I had on hand. After reassembly, the reunited PAIR of scissors now works as well as they ever did. Quality I like, form that functions, less time than a trip to town and my familiar scissors will be exactly where they have long resided.

Many people, places and things in our lives are just like that.

We can chooses to repair and stick with the old.

We can litter our wake with jetsam, consuming time, earned money and refined resources acquiring replacements.

The modern consumptive disposable society includes a similar cavalier attitude towards relationships.

Of course falling apart around me is not risk-free. Hard telling what I will use to repair the damage.