JUNK

I have been processing in my mind how much junk we have to deal with. The reason for this is easily determined in that as long as there is junk we can easily miss what is authentic and real. Although junk is a just a low-grade example of a worn-out, or used up, inferior and or sorry item; it was in its original the real thing, or partly the real thing. Things are junk by time and use, by abuse, and by philosophically taking something valuable and making it junk by perception.

We have many things that are called junk; junk bonds, junk stocks, junk mail, junk yards, junk food, ‘junk’ (the slang word for heroin), and thus a junkie or Junky, also a Junker (worn out old car or truck), junk jewelry, etc. It is something that goes from its original, new and useful state to something that is clutter, debris, garbage, litter, scrap, waste, or rubbish.

Anything and any part of our lives can turn into junk without maintenance, renewal, replacement, update or careful oversight. Anyplace can turn into a junkyard. And this includes our lives and our minds. Without fresh stimulus and new input, we can only live on worn out dreams, ‘what if’s,’ ‘yesterdays, ‘the way it used to be,’ ‘the good old days,’ and ‘I remember when.’ Not only is this junk, it is the junk trap that prevents the vitality of newness.

“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.” Jesus