Discardian Musings
I’m not at all sure whether it’s directly related to 31on100, but so far today I’ve paid all my bills for this month, built two chairs that have been sitting in their boxes ever since Ikea delivered them, and am now in the middle of finally cleaning out my closet so I can build my dresser. This means throwing out a bunch of old clothes, possibly some books, and probably the CD player/tape deck I’ve been hanging onto since middle school.
Conveniently, I’m smack in the middle of the four-times-a-year holy ~week Discardia. Long story short, Discardia is a celebration of getting rid of things and thoughts you no longer need. It’s celebrated from each solstice and equinox to the following new moon. That means some instances of Discardia are three weeks long, and some are three days. This particular one ends a week from tomorrow, if you’re interested in joining me in celebration.
In addition to cleaning the closet (and desk, and sink, and pretty much everything else), I’ve found myself listening to Brother, a band that has always felt uniquely mine but which I hadn’t listened too much in the last year, burning Red Crystal incense, and generally harking back to an older version of myself—a version I’ve missed. I wonder how much of this is due to 31on100 (probably not much, given that I’m only three days into the project), how much is due to the beautiful summer weather, and how much to the fact that it usually takes me about a year to really adapt to any new life pattern (high school, college, the real world). I suspect a synthesis of the three, with the last item providing the most impetus—I’ve finally started adapting to my non-student status and the opportunities it provides me to pursue interesting projects.
In honour of Discardia, I ought to obey Strunk and White’s best-known exhortation: ‘Omit needless words.’ To that end, I’m done writing for the moment.
