Title courtesy of Sir Philip Sidney(1554-1586), nephew of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester (known, among other things, for his very close relationship with Queen Elizabeth 1). Also, more to the point for me, a wonderful poet, known especially for his sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella. Of course, Sidney is talking about erotic desire. He ends one of his sonnets with the line:"Desiring nought but how to kill desire."
So, with a transition to my frugality mode, isn't that what so many frugality posts are all about: how to kill desire for stuff? Even I, pathologically frugal, find all this a bit hair shirt. Stuff can be wonderful.
Still, I have two tips on how to kill desire. One for each child.
One: have your college student son come home. With 7 garbage bags filled with stuff. Dirty clothes mixed with school books mixed with mugs mixed with shoes mixed with change. Separate. Help do the laundry. Try to put it all away.Confiscate all the bills ($5.00!) that emerge from the dryer. So much stuff. That's a real desire-killer.
Two: have daughter return shortly thereafter. This meant that we had to get Frugal Son's stuff put away, because we were using Miss Em's room as a staging area. Miss Em is a lot neater than Frugal Son. Still, in addition to clothing,linens,and the like, Miss Em returned with 4 seven foot "people." These are fabulous looking, but...where to put.
And where to put the graduation robes? Well, Mr. FS made a statue from a rake a while ago. It is now wearing the graduation robes.
To keep this honest, I have to confess that the main clutterbug/slob in our household is me. But except for Miss Em, we all have problems in this area. If you've been wondering where my posts are: in the dryer? in a big garbage bag of college papers? The upside: a big infusion of stuff is a great way to kill desire for more.
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