journal features

apartment sales are a bad idea

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2000.12.17

We had our content sale yesterday. A lot of work organising one of those! We sold a bunch of stuff, from Sara's bike to a whack of CD's and tapes, to some books and odd bits of furniture.

For anyone thinking of holding a content sale in their apartment, know this: People will turn up at 6:30 AM, no matter when your sale actually starts. These are dealers. They will argue the price on your best deals, and complain about the quality of other stuff. They're obnoxious, contempuous, and they uniformly suck.

You will raise some cash, but it's a huge effort. So unless you're really keen on squeezing the last few $ out of your old candle holders and that fuzzy top you never wore, I suggest taking it to the Sally Ann.

People will come back to the apartment long after the sale is over. I don't know what to say about these people. Perhaps they're trying to rob you.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner