I initiated this post back on December 13, 2023. Almost exactly half a year ago. Today I pick up where I left off. (Let’s hope that it’s improved with time like an oh-so-fine bottle of wine!?) Time to look at the tyranny of stuff…
![Tyranny of Stuff: Boat Fenders and Erosion Control Booms (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4750-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
By way of backstory, here’s what I jotted down back in December.
Our friend, Jennifer Isaacson, reached out with a book review this morning that triggered memories of meeting Seamus Heaney in 1986 or 1987 while I was a freshman (or sophomore?) in high school. Listening to him read, heck, even just listening to him speak, was mesmerizing. What a word wizard. What an accent. What a cadence.
Xxx
![Tyranny of Stuff: Architectural Salvage (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4747-1.jpg?resize=1000%2C1000&ssl=1)
If you’re unfamiliar with Heaney, I encourage you to change that. You can thank me later.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Copper Hose Pots (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4759-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
But eulogizing and recommending the poet isn’t my mission.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Hand-Me-Down-Table (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4760-1.jpg?resize=1000%2C1000&ssl=1)
Instead, a couple of excerpts from the article (and the spot-on perfect title!) provide the seed for today’s photo essay.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Anchor Line and Anchor Buoy (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4751-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
Let’s start with this.
What is the opposite of poetry? What slows the spark and puts sludge in the veins? What deadens the language? What rears up before you with livid and stupefying power—in the middle of the night, in the middle of the day—to make you feel like you’ll never write a good line again?
Stuff.
Not physical stuff, but mental stuff. You know: things you should have taken care of. The unanswered email. The unpaid bill. The unvisited dentist. The undischarged obligation. The unfinished job. The terrible ballast of adulthood.
— James Parker (Source: “The Tyranny of Stuff”, The Atlantic)
Couldn’t have put it better.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Destiny (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4753-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
This has been my challenge over the last year and a half, to burn the fat out of my brain so that I can focus. So that I can find what I’m searching for. So that I can create what I’m trying to invent!
![Tyranny of Stuff: Bridled Mooring Painter (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4761-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
Back to the article.
I’m up to my neck in deferred things and pressing things, and always the real thing gets shelved.
— Ted Hughes (Source: “The Tyranny of Stuff”, The Atlantic)
Thank you, Ted Hughes. Another bullseye.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Planters and Table (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4758-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
When others say it better, step aside. The tyranny of stuff is what I wish I’d come up with myself. Resonates big time. And in so many ways!
![Tyranny of Stuff: Drying Lupine (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4749-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
Which brings me to the photographs in today’s post.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Sailfish (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4756-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
Physical stuff (not mental stuff.) A series of snapshots taken upstairs in the carriage barn.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Old Mad River Canoe (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4752-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
So. Much. Stuff. The detritus of homeownership. Physical stuff.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Vegetable Garden Trellises (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4757-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
A visually effective stand-in for all the mental stuff. Stupefying sludge.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Crockery for Potted Plants (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4754-1.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)
But not for long.
![Tyranny of Stuff: Life Ring and Mooring Buoy (Photo: Geo Davis)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rosslynredux.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/img_4748-1.jpg?resize=1000%2C1000&ssl=1)
I’m declaring an end to the tyranny of stuff!
What do you think?