Tackling the Mountain

I think most of us have some corner in our life where the mess piles up. Maybe it's that dark space under the kitchen sink, or the closet that's packed to the ceiling. Maybe it's the garage that's slid into chaos. Over the years you get to the point that you just open the door and chuck stuff in, slam it and walk away. That kind of place.

I admit it - I have one, too. I keep thinking, I really have got to do something about this. But I always find some excuse to put it off. Every few years I make a half-hearted attempt to tackle it, then give up in despair.

But as I get older, I find my thinking is changing. If I don't take care of this now, while I have the energy, it's only going to be harder later. And I sure don't want my children to have to deal with it when I'm too old to do it.

So I've decided it's time to finally clean out the pole barn.

It's a scary prospect, I can tell you. Every shelf is sagging with battered boxes. Every corner is piled with rusty tools and broken junk. There are decrepit bicycles and broken chairs hanging sadly from the rafters. The middle has grown slowly into a mound of rolls of old carpet, unused lumber, fishing and hunting equipment, and even an old wood stove.

But I'm not going to put it off any longer. I've decided to finally get it done. Armed with steely determination and my trusty work gloves, I'm tackling the mountain.

Every day I've been marching out there and carving a path into the chaos. Lugging down boxes. Rummaging in corners. Dragging out dozens of old paint cans and bottles of motor oil. Peering at rusty car parts, tugging on coil after coil of electrical wire and sweeping out years of dust and dirt. Rummaging through box after moldy box of old stuff. Over and over I find myself wondering, what is this thing? How did that get out here? Whoa, I just bought one of these last week! And most of all, how on earth did we get to this point?

With the help of my long-suffering spouse, patiently hauling and lifting and doing the heavy work, we're starting to make real progress. Every day there are more empty shelves, and floor space that hasn't seen the light of day in years.

I guess that's part of getting old: getting serious about your legacy. Not leaving a mess behind you when you leave the party.

Tonight I was watching yet another news story about the sad state our climate is in, and I got to thinking how it's a lot like that barn out there. We've let year after year of poor choices and denial and procrastination go by, piling up like a mountain of trash that we turn our backs on and try to ignore. And who's got to deal with it? I can just picture our children standing at the door, staring in at the mess we made and cursing us for ruining their future.

And it looks like that day's almost here.

But I'm sure not giving up, and neither should you. I have to believe we can still, every one of us, do our part to turn things around.

I can just see it - that world we can still build together. And with grit and determination and creativity and hope, bit by bit every one of us can help make it happen. And our children will look at the healing world and say, "Look what they did for us. Look how much they cared!"

Now that's a mountain worth climbing, wouldn't you say? Let's pull on those gloves and get to work!