We try to make things last but in the end, everything is aging all the time. Everything wears out and I don't know how to stop it. I don't even know how to stay aware of it. I could keep some sort of database where I enter everything we own and its age. I could have a column where the age is updated each time the file is opened. We might have some sort of radio frequency Id (RFID) arrangement that would log the item and the date as it comes into the house and keep track of its age and maybe send us an email when, say 80%, of the expected useful lifetime has expired. But more complexity, more use of files and information processing and more burned-up electrical energy certainly does not appeal to me. Not to mention more time sitting at a computer.
Quiet acceptance is not my strong suit, although I am trying to improve in that area. When something fails and I can see that is has aged, I sometimes feel betrayed. Something, the 2nd law of thermodynamics, irreversible decay, has snuck in like a thief and undermined what used to be perfectly good. In the words of some Peanuts characters, who ordered that?
I guess a good-sized portion of the economy depends on this aging. Of course, fashions and modifications and fads can also change our acceptance to rejection. We can create a new desire more or less out of nothing. But new towels, new shoes, new rugs and flooring would also be needed over time just because of this steady, relentless aging.
