Gleaners & I (Varda)

I consider myself a gleaner. Raised in a house that regularly participated in antiquing, I have spent a fair amount of time browsing up and down the halls of antique malls filled with items from yesteryear. I often think about how these items, especially furniture made from materials such as metal and wood, are likely the last of their kind. In our new world of MDF, tomorrow’s antiques will be of much lesser quality. Not able or willing to afford newer quality pieces, I fill my home with mostly antique furniture. Like the professor in Varda’s Gleaners, who could afford a much nicer life, but chooses instead to value living off leftovers and spending his time educating residents at his residential building. Our lives are made up of choices and the desire to pull from our existing environment affords a freedom from our over commercialized society.

On my walk to EHoB lecture, I walked past a man in a wheelchair rhythmically shaking a jar of coins. The rhythm was pleasant amongst the dance of street walkers as if choreographed.