Disposable Monday. #1

As with most things, pleasant or unpleasant, they have a beginning, a middle and an end. Typically, Monday is not only the beginning of something unpleasant but also the end of something pleasant. The start of the working week is a weekly event that is universally despised by the majority of the clock punching public. But it's got to start somewhere I guess and we all love to hate it. A Monday moan is a weekly tradition as much as Sunday lunch is. If only Monday was as disposable as the rest of modern life has become.








In order to accommodate busy modern lifestyles, compromises have to be made. Hear the word "disposable" in a word association game and chances are you say "razor". The disposable razor is the epitome of the disposable world, once it no longer serves it's original purpose just throw it away. Take a look around the rest of the bathroom to see what else is disposable. Step into the bedroom and see how many things there are going to be thrown away. Go about the rest of the house, do the same thing and by the time you're finished, the list of disposables is probably significantly larger than the list of non-disposables.
There is of course a valid reason for this and it's because the majority of the items used in daily life are specifically designed for one purpose. One thing that has to be done on a regular basis and once that item can no longer serve that purpose it has no other use. So, it has to be thrown away and replaced. That's all well and good when it comes to shaving, brushing your teeth or washing dishes but disposability is not just a convenience to accommodate lifestyle nowadays. Disposability is the modern lifestyle now and modern life has become disposable.

Inside a disposable camera.

The word "Disposable" precedes many things these days. Thing like camera, razor, lighter or X-ray markers. Type "Disposable" into Google, followed by any letter of the alphabet and a list of suggestions will appear. Go through the whole alphabet, there is a list of suggestions for each letter. Disposable income is a thing these days and somehow disposable friends is too. But it doesn't stop there. People seem far too willing to throw away anything that no longer serves it's original purpose. Everything has a shelf life now, it's not just your toothbrush or Primark clothes. Jacket torn? Get a new one, a needle and thread is a thing of the past. Shoes worn out? They're gone, cobblers to cobblers. Car broke down? Send it to webuyanycar. A mechanic is far too much trouble. There, it seems, is the rub. A measure of inconvenience. When the amount of effort required to maintain something goes beyond a certain threshold the value of that something drops to zero. Family member become a burden? Guess what.

Yes, family is disposable nowadays. You may scoff at this but I would merely direct you to the figures for divorce rates and the statistics for lone parenthood. Things just aren't repaired anymore. As modern life becomes busier and more hectic, tolerance for things that no longer work becomes less and less and it is clearly not limited to household items. Relationships require maintenance as much as anything else in this world does but it seems that they too are just as disposable as everything else. For the very same reasons too. Once the amount of effort required to maintain the relationship exceeds that threshold, it's value drops to zero and it becomes disposable. People are increasingly reluctant to repair anything these days, opting instead to replace the old broken thing with a new working thing. A value of zero has already been assigned.
My concern is that if everything has become disposable,
is there anything left that has any value.