Aging Well and Maybe Why Nobody Cares

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Change is neither good or bad in and of itself.

It truly is the only constant, and the rate of change of our world certainly seems to have increased.

This begs us to detach and become aware of our direction.

When we wake up to our world, things that sound like common sense can come off as strange. For instance, (improved technology) X (economic stability+freedom) = vastly increased choices in purchasing. A weird offshoot of this fact though is that products that age well have become a rare niche rather than the standard.

This is because consumerism rewards planned obsolescence.

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Redwing Boots

As I walk through the morning dew, I can anticipate that the water, time, and regular oiling will make them better in a year than the day I bought them.

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Rat-rod Harley

Bought for $5,000 on craigslist several years ago, this is aged to look as good in 10 more years as it does today.

These things bring me joy the same way our floors bring our clients joy. They were not fun purchases up front:

  • New Redwings actually hurt my feet a little for a month or so until I get them broken in. Then I can usually count on them for 2-6 years.

  • That Harley ran so badly when I bought it, I thought I would have to re-build the motor. Luckily it was just old gas with a lot of condensation.

It seems to be the same deal with the floors we make. Clients are conditioned to expect a lot when they purchase, and they often get what they don’t expect (this can be borderline traumatic). They nearly always grow to love the floors over time though. Having done several thousand of projects based out of a tiny town, I can tell you: our customers grow to love their floors.

We have to realize when we have been made into junkies. If we working to buy things that we know will be garbage sooner than other choices, we should stop. I know there is an endless stream of new stuff to buy though. It’s easy to be blinded by that to our meaningless earning and buying and earning and buying and filling of landfills. Only by subordinating our passing feelings to what really makes sense can we build lives that get better each year. Ironically, wise purchasing may be the best road out of consumerism.