Let's assume that most readers find discussion forums as painful to read as I do. I'm almost glad they are, because it created a delightful surprise. On the forum for converting cargo trailers to travel trailer/campers, several people have used the term, "re-purpose," as in 'they repurposed a metal bracket from a shelf in their basement to a new life in their cargo trailer.'
It really caught my eye. What a wonderful word. In some ways, it is magic to create a new function and add value to something that you already own.
When camping in the outback, repurposing scraps and other things is the only way to make your little house more comfortable, unless you are willing to make several long round-trips to town for the hardware store. Personally this is when I've gotten the most pleasure from repurposing. You feel so clever when you succeed! The downside is that the result looks amateurish and ad hoc.
When you drive a half dozen times a day to Home Depot, Ace, and Lowe's, as I am currently doing, a real pleasure is missed. Driving and buying are "cheating." And they get so tiresome!
Naturally it is easy to think of repurposing tangible things, especially when you are working on a project like mine. But doesn't it add even more to Life to repurpose Time? Think of any substantial improvement you've ever made to your lifestyle. The essence of it was probably taking hours of wasted time (television, driving & shopping, Facebook, etc.) and reallocating the time to something more worthwhile.
Still, it is valuable to repurpose tangible things just for the sake of getting interested in the subject and wondering how general it can be.
It really caught my eye. What a wonderful word. In some ways, it is magic to create a new function and add value to something that you already own.
When camping in the outback, repurposing scraps and other things is the only way to make your little house more comfortable, unless you are willing to make several long round-trips to town for the hardware store. Personally this is when I've gotten the most pleasure from repurposing. You feel so clever when you succeed! The downside is that the result looks amateurish and ad hoc.
When you drive a half dozen times a day to Home Depot, Ace, and Lowe's, as I am currently doing, a real pleasure is missed. Driving and buying are "cheating." And they get so tiresome!
Naturally it is easy to think of repurposing tangible things, especially when you are working on a project like mine. But doesn't it add even more to Life to repurpose Time? Think of any substantial improvement you've ever made to your lifestyle. The essence of it was probably taking hours of wasted time (television, driving & shopping, Facebook, etc.) and reallocating the time to something more worthwhile.
Still, it is valuable to repurpose tangible things just for the sake of getting interested in the subject and wondering how general it can be.
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| The roof rack is ready to accept 480 Watts of solar panels, arriving in a couple days. And yes, I did repurpose some of the aluminum angle lying in my parts bin to make the eight brackets. |
Comments
What is wrong with the existing term, RECYCLING? Do we really need to change the English language, just to feel okay or good about recycling things?
Rant off.
Hair splitting perhaps but two good words.
A product never had to be reconstituted to be referred to as recycling, before this new term of re-purposing recently came into common usage.
I'm not clear on how your attaching all this crap to your trailer, but from what I can tell I would recommend you give flying lessons to your solar panels as a back up plan !