Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 26, 2017

Think of it as a striptease, by your house.

Wow, Arlo must be getting really depressed about ageing.

Charliegirl: I think you’e right about Arlo. However, I suspect that most of us have more fear of dying than depression about aging. With each passing day, I hear the knocking on the door a little more loudly and a little more insistent.

I for one would rather let go of the many things that don’t matter to me or were more about a time then my true self, then expect my kids to have to decide what to keep when I am gone. Keep the memories and photos, not the souvenirs.

It’s his libido that Arlo is afraid to part with.

Take up art collecting. Something affordable like modern Navajo pottery. Then when you die your collection will be wanted by someone

Whenever i suggest we toss out old, useless things, my husband gets nervous that he will be included. Ha ha. He still gets a SS check so he is safe.

For myself, anyway, it’s downright liberating to find out how much stuff I don’t need or want anymore — and scary that so much of it has hung around for decades out of inertia. Sometimes it’s a gift from a relative now gone, who won’t ever come to see if we still have it. Sometimes it’s an article that had a use at one time, but that I’ll never use again. And sometimes, it’s a “what was I thinking?!” purchase. I’m with Janis on this one! Keep the memories if you want to, and lose the stuff.

The basis for measurement of our economy is strongly tied to consumption. Realizing you don’t need to consume simply for consumption’s sake messes up the metrics — or shows their basic flaw.