The Well-Worn Things
Somethings are just beautiful after using them a million times.
Do you have a well-worn thing?
Like a notebook, scribbled, battered, and ink-stained, but it’s always there for your thoughts, ideas and emotions? Or a pair of very old pants that still spikes you with the confidence you need?
I had a lot of them, these well-worn things. I made the best use of them. But now the number has drastically reduced. I am still using a lot of things, but not really making them well-worn.
About the well-worn thing
A well-worn thing, I think, is a sign of a well-used product. The things we buy, that helps us to further do more, create more, express more, and live life more - those tend to be well-worn things. Like a cap we pop on our head to play a game outdoors, our baking gloves to pull out that experimental batch of cookies.
There’s a reason you keep reaching out to it again and again. A well-worn thing becomes a symbol of your well-lived life. No longer a ‘product’ they become a part of your life helping you live it to its best. You form a bond with that item.
Where did they go?
Buy when you are happy,
Buy when you are sad,
Buy when in love,
And buy when you are mad.
Consumerism tells us that it needs to be new. Most things are not built to last, let alone be used enough to be well-worn. We barely hit the end of our lipstick before we purchase the next one.
We are always buying, buying, buying. Consuming, consuming and consuming. And yet it feels all hollow. It doesn’t feel tasty anymore.
The Era of the One-Night Stand
Most of things we consume today are banal and not meant to be well-worn. Trendy cafes that neither offer a restful ambience nor a good cup of coffee do not become well-worn. Clothes with its tearable material and unflattering cut stay hidden in the back of our cupboards under a pile of more clothes of regret. A lot of things made today are like a one-night stand. Fun for a while, till you just get over it.
Worth Keeping
In a world where consumption is glorified, I think I would focus my energies on building my small world with well-worn things. Rather than having a lot of things, I would love to have a few well-worn things. Like a good movie that I watch on repeat, homestyle fries from my slightly battered yet trusty air fryer, and my comfy ancient blanket that never fails to make me feel cozy and safe.
Take the time to look around your space and find those well-worn things that have grown along with you. Im sure their scruffs and marks carry a story - their story, which is also yours too.