You lie in this dim bedroom, sipping the cup of coffee your wife brought you, and listening to the wind in the trees and the occasional passing car. You think, it has been a long time since you sat and listened like this and appreciated what you had.
Your appliances are getting older. Your sister's new iPod has twice the hard drive as the one you bought two years ago, and it's half as thick, and the screen is sharper, too. Your netbook is first generation with the low resolution screen. Your washer is busted so that it spins even with the lid open - a liability! And don't even think about your car.
You think about the rusted, clunky power tools you found in your grandfather's attic. God, those things must have cost a fortune when he bought them, all that iron and steel, the power cords covered in a woven fabric. (And who wove that?) Working with them must have built a stronger generation of carpenters. A circular saw like an anchor, with no safety features. Ready to fall on your foot, crushing and mangling all at once. But still here; still here, and ponderous in your hand. With some oil and hand tools you could have had it spinning again.
Your appliances are getting older, and this is not the time to toss them for something new. You'll make do. And you revolt by collecting old typewriters, old refridgerators, old stoves. Find the best examples of things that have accomplished goals, from whatever year, and make use of those. Why have we been locked into this constant grow, discard, and remake?
You know why. It is because it is what your genes do with your body. They're almost through with you already; they'll neglect you and toss you off when they're done.
Like it or not, you have taken their example and built a world on evolution and decay. This body may seem fine today, but tomorrow it will need for something new. So make something new, mildly improved, repurposed. See how it works out and then throw out the one you've got. Genes and stockholders demand steady growth into new markets or they will sell their shares and invest elsewhere. If your business is not growing it is dying.
Throwing your old shit in the trashheap is neature's way. The ultimate affront to nature is to sit still and be happy with what you've got.
Just try, just try, I dare you.
You think about your grandmother, who spent a month in bed once, comfortable in her depression. But she could only sit that still because she had the ocean at her window, constantly rolling, and the seagulls made calls as similar and different as snowflakes.