What's A Farthering?

Portrait of the late Anna Massey, the British actress that recently died. Ms. Massey played Edith Hope from Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac. Massey also was featured in a BBC production of Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now. Both Brookner and Trollope are in the MoneyWalker's Hall of Fame for their frequent reference to characters that take long meaningful walks.

Featured Entry: What's A Farthering?

Next to super finds (fifty cents are more in one location); the Moneywalker enjoys finding ecological ground scores. Ecological ground scores are any item that has been thrown away or hopelessly lost but has value. If it can be recycled, repaired, or repurposed the item is lugged home, cleaned, repaired, and prepared for the MoneyWalkers’s semi-annual charity yard sale.

With admiring interest the MoneyWalker is happy to pass along the story of Kemila Slade of the New Bern, N.C. Pink Sapphire Ladies Club. While walking with fourteen other members of the Club for the purpose of picking up trash along Neuse Boulevard in New Bern, Slade spotted a farthing. A farthing is a now obsolete British coin, their lowest denomination and worth .25 of an old British penny. In the 13th century, a farthing had the strength to purchase a 2 pound loaf of bread. But due to 20th century inflation, the farthing became worthless and was officially declared no longer legal tender as of Dec. 31, 1960.

Ms. Slade’s farthing was minted in 1730. The farthing was not “uncirculated” but was in good condition. Experts speculate that someone accidently threw it away. It took Ms. Slade’s careful observation to resurrect the farthing from permanent obscurity. A non-profit North Carolina organization called Keep NC Beautiful sponsors a semi-annual “most unusual litter” contest. The Slade farthing won first place which included a $250 prize. Numismatists indicate that the coin is worth about ten bucks.

The take away is that walking is not only great for maintaining and building good health, by adding ecological walking to our motivation scheme; we can help our world be a better place.

MoneyWalker

Is Walking A Key To Happiness?

Who knew, the Pope is a walker. Photo taken by Sammy Sabine at 2011 New Orleans Mardi Gras.


Feature Entry: Is Walking A Key To Happiness?

The MoneyWalker, like most bloggers, follows the blogs of others. This morning I tuned into Gretchen Rubin’s award winning “The Happiness Project.” Today she interviewed Piers Steel author of the book, The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done. Steel opines that “procrastination isn't tied to perfectionism or laziness, as many people believe, but rather to impulsivity. Impulsive people have trouble getting themselves to do things they don't want to do.” I suppose I can add impulsivity to initiative disorder as a reason to put off my morning walk.

Steel also promotes walking as a source of happiness. Gretchen asked Steel: “If you’re feeling blue, how do you give yourself a happiness boost?" Responds Steel: “

My strategy isn’t to pursue happiness as directly as others often do. It doesn’t work, at least for me, quite as well as I would wish. I’m more of an Aldous Huxley adherent, “Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.” So I seek accomplishment and meaning and through these activities I find satisfaction with my life. In a pinch, however, a really vigorous exercise routine dependably burns away gloom; sore muscles reacquaint you with your body and get you out of your head.”

Thus, to use Pers Steel’s strategy to experience happiness we should focus on tasks that involve accomplishment, meaning, satisfaction, and exercise.

Steel also shares the MoneyWalker’s propensity to repurpose, recycle, and rebuild objects that are broken or discarded. Rubin asked Steel: “What’s a simple activity that consistently makes you happier? Steel:

“Fixing or building things. I’m the type of guy who likes assembling IKEA furniture. Perhaps it acts as a counterpoint to the writing [one’s regular work] I do, but there is something wonderful about holding something physical in your hands and feeling the steady progress as an object reaches completion. Even better, when my five year old son’s Christmas gift, a train he adored, broke within a few weeks, he held back a tear as he placed his toy confidently in my hands. I’ve fixed so many over-loved toys in the past. A little disassembly, a bolt to keep the piston in place, and “good as new,” as he likes say when he gets it back."

So is walking a source of happiness? It is for the MoneyWalker. He is happy when the scales report a downward trend. He is happy when he experiences the sounds, sights, smells, and social flavors of his Mid-City neighborhood. He is happy by the maintenance of a relatively thin waist line. He is happy when finding loose change or objects discarded that are then repaired and recycled. He is happy when the physician announces glowing and positive results of the latest physical check-up.

But don't take the word of the MoneyWalker, ask the Pope, his photo says it all!

MoneyWalker

Journal Entry February 8, 2011: Street Smarts

Journal Entry: Street Smarts
February 8, 2011

Weight = 175.2 lbs.; Coinage = $.83, 28 pennies, 2 nickels, 2 dimes, 1 qt.; Glass Bottles = 6; Ground Scores = 2.

Today’s Journal Entry is inspired by runner Kevin Castille who has formed "lofty ambitions while running ... he continues to shine while taking to the road." Times Picayune, Monday Feb. 7, 2011. Only two ground scores were brought home by the MoneyWalker as he “took the road” this morning. One was a good one. Earlier, he had found a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner at curb side because the back wheels had broken off. Otherwise this Consumer Report Best Buy ran perfectly. The ground score this morning was a pair of wheels mounted on an axle that was long enough to be fitted on the vacuum. With the wheels “repurposed” the vacuum is now ready for the forthcoming yard sale--price $5.00. Any takers?

To see the latest Feature Blog about how to practice Bricolage walking, that is finding and recycling or repurposing discarded items, check the following link:

http://moneywalker.blogspot.com/2011/02/bricolage-walker.html

MoneyWalker

The Bricolage Walker

Courtesy-of-Gansam-Architects-Partners-Perspective

Feature Entry: The Bricolage Walker

Our personal history can sometimes be a chronicle of what might have been. The MoneyWalker enjoys his money theme, but he could have been the BricolageWalker. A Bricolage walker is a person that makes good use of objects that are found while walking, things that everyday folks discard or leave behind.

This somewhat esoteric word is pronounced brē’ kō-lӓzh’, and means “something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available. Bricolage is used in diverse and interesting contexts including management theory, literature, and recycling.

M. Afzalur Rahim in his “Current Topics in Management, Vol. 12, 2007 book suggested that bricolage behavior is an important aspect of creative problem solving: ““people facing difficult and uncertain situations use whatever resources they have at hand to reach their goals.” George de Mestral (an avid walker) invented Velcro after a long walk aggravated by cockleburs stuck in his trousers. While removing the burs he noticed how their hook like properties interacted with the threads of his pants. Eureka, Velcro was invented. And the Apollo 13 astronauts used duck tape, discarded paper and other articles to patch their troubled spacecraft to rescue themselves from the troubled moon flight.

In recycling, there are community bricolages. They bring together people of all ages to discuss and learn how to re-use unwanted items. There are bricolage competitions. Designers compete to see which can create the most useful or interest object from whatever materials are at hand. The featured photo was from the Korean YEOSU-EXPO SILO Recycling Competition.

In postmodern literature the bricolage technique has resulted in a new genre which uses bits and pieces of older writing methods to produce new literary styles; stream-of-consciousness writing for example. Old tools from realism, characterization, tidy plot lines, romanticism, etc. are used but in unconventional ways.

The bricolage walker is at heart an environmentalist. The walks are for fitness and weight control, but the motivation to sustain the walks over multiple months and years of walking is the anticipation of finding objects discarded or lost by others and then recycling or repurposing them. Claude Leví-Strauss defined bricolage materials as"… elements which can be defined by two criteria: they have had a use.... and they can be used again either for the same purpose or for a different one if they are at all diverted from their previous function."

Finding money remains supreme, but more and more, the MoneyWalker’s “excitement of the walk” is the anticipation of finding useful interesting recyclable objects. He stores the treasures in his large basement, recycles them or repurposes them at his leisure, and then conducts a yard sale of the objects with all profits going to the New Orleans Friendship House for abused women and their children.

If you thought Ms MoneyWalker had trouble with a husband obsessed with finding dirty bent coins, don’t even mention the basement.

MoneyWalker

postmodern literature,

SILO Recycling Competition for YEOSU-EXPO / G.Lab* by Gansam Architects & Partner