The word of the day* for March 11, 2007 is “rubbish”— noun 1 : useless waste or rejected matter : trash. 2 : something that is worthless or nonsensical <few real masterpieces are forgotten and not much rubbish survives — William Bridges-Adams>.
This evening, the neighbor from across the street brought us a plastic, free-standing rack that will hold rakes and other garden implements. He offered to help Lloyd clean out the garage because he—the neighbor—also has some cabinets he would like us to take off his hands.
I don’t know whether he is just a compulsive neatnik, or whether he just wants to help the old folks out. We really should clean out the garage and throw away a lot of things like dull/broken rusty drill bits and other tools that haven’t been touched, let alone used for eons. Also dabs of spackle and car wax that dried in their containers years ago. Still it feels like we are being pushed. There’s no rush; The kids can box it up and send it all to the dump when we’re gone.
The quote† for today is from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Lecture, March 3, 1884, in Amory Hall, Boston, Massachusetts. “New England Reformers,” Essays, Second Series (1844).
Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish,—and that
makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not equal to
the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the kingdom of
darkness, they expend all their energy on some accidental evil, and lose their
sanity and power of benefit.
;^) Jan
* Unless otherwise attributed, the definition is from either Merriam-Webster Online,10th Edition or The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition and is used by permission.
† Unless otherwise attributed, the quote is from either Bartleby: Great Books on Line or The Quotation Pages and is used by permission.
P.S.: Comments and word requests are welcome.
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