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Show Ms hq w "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." That adage was practically the law of the land when the first settlers arrived and made America their home. Since then we've become a nation of superabundance and conspicuous waste. FACE it, writes Jerome Brondfield in the November Reader's Digest, how many worn-out paper clips have you seen lately? An office manager told him: "My ins- tinct tells me that nine out of ten paper clips find their way into a wastebasket if they're ever plucked off a sheaf of papers. Maybe one in a hundred expired by being bent beyond use, or lost. But if 1 ever issued a memo stating stat-ing that we could save $100 a year on paper clips, I'd be the laughingstock of the corporation." corpora-tion." The repairman may be an endangered species. Time was, the umbrella man appeared ap-peared periodically, prepared to restore the family's umbrella supply to health. No longer, as you can see by city trash cans filled with junked umbrellas after a gusty rain. BUT shoes can be resoled, furniture reupholstered, watches restored to accuracy and garden tools resharpened to a fine edge. Not only is this economical practice of which our forebears would approve, restoring and recycling may offer spiritual benefits as well. San Francisco psychiatrist Andrew Whyman says: "Underlying "Un-derlying the maddening rush to 'get a new one' as soon as the old one is tiresome or a bit tarnished-whether it be a husband, wife or couch-is the belief that replacement will bring fulfillment, the good part of life not now present, BUT when people lose the skill of fixing things, when we replace rather than repair, then the evanescent high takes the place of maturity and real fulfillment." |