Well, the Dumpster of Shame has arrived. I better make good use of it. $267.50 for one week, and they ran out of the smaller size, so I got the bigger one without extra charge. Many bloggers have called for some communal Dumpster Diving and I love that idea. My Dumpster and my garbage have suddenly become controversial, thanks mostly to the magic of social media. I mentioned almost casually that we were getting a dumpster, but the seeds of righteousness grow deep in our world, and there was great concern – a wave of e-mail – that Maria and I would be tossing books and clothes without regard for the environment or the poor.  Several people wrote to urge me not to throw books away and to tell me that there were poor people in the world. And that a fiber artist like Maria ought to know that clothes could be re-cycled (she did nearly lose it when I read that to her.) I was already foaming at the mouth.

Glenn wrote to say, by the way, and while we are at it, that Maria is not artist, and that without me, no one would want her products, and I am allowing love to cloud my judgement. I urged him not to be a small man, and he wrote back and apologized. He is not a small man, at least.

So two firsts: I am accused of indifference to libraries, the poor and the earth, and Maria, it has been suggested, is an oblivious wastrel (and no artist either, talk about self delusion.) Friendly fire, I think. I must confess to liking the idea of having love cloud my judgement, a better thing to be accused of, especially at my age, when love and judgement sometimes fade. Better to be alive than not.

Writing about this garbage thing this morning, I touched off a bit of a firestorm. Okay, I do like doing that sometimes, I sometimes think, in my lesser moments, it is why God put me on the earth. I just loved writing that piece. After I got over my pique, I decided to go with humor.   On Facebook, there were some ruffled  righteous feathers. Christine scolded, “And Jon, if you don’t want people’s opinions of your blog, then don’t post a blog where there is the opportunity for people to comment and have opinions.” Hmmmm. Okay. I guess this is what the marketing people mean when they say people’s entitlement and perspective and  expectations for free stuff online only grows. Maybe it’s time for Christine to pay something for the blog, since she seems to think she is part owner of it for just reading it at my expense. Then she might be entitled to demand equal say.

Seriously, though, I do not offer the blog to get other people’s opinions, although they are welcome. I publish the blog to express my opinions, and my photos and my journey through life. This is a monologue, not a dialogue, and I not agree to the notion that by publishing the blog, everyone on earth has the right to tell me what to do or what to put in my Dumpster Of Shame.  I like making my own decisions, for better or worse, and am not looking for advice or the judgements of other people. Conventional wisdom, I think, leads to the death of the  mind. I do not argue my beliefs or my life, and I stand firm on the notion that what I put in my garbage is nobody else’s business.

Still, in the spirit of a good thing, (and I know a good story when I see one)  I am going to make my Dumpster a thing of transparency. I will share with all of you what I put in it, and how it is going. We will Dumpster Dive online, on Facebook and the blog, an evolution in my own life as a writer and yet another milestone for social media. Two bags are going in this morning. Stuff from  high up in the cabinet – broken bowls, glass, damaged camera filters, torn camera bags (not salvageabe). Tomorrow, another trip to the Cambridge Library, then another trip to the Salvation Army in Glens Falls.

My moral so far: Do  not  make assumptions about other people. In the animal or political or real world, self-righteousness is not moral. It is obnoxious, and usually accomplishes nothing. Moral philosophy teaches humility. We learn, we don’t preach. We seek, we do  not know.  Do not think that because you read a blog, you are buying its author, or own a piece of his or her life. Do  not tell other people what to do, unless asked. And if asked, don’t do it then either. We do not know what it in anybody else’s Dumpster, literally or metaphorically.