31 Jan News from Experienced Goods February 2022
I have tiny ponies running through my house. Lest you think working in a thrift store has finally melted my brain, let me offer one word: Kittens. Two of them. Five months old, newly adopted sisters, furry, adorable packages of limitless energy. My friend Hannah, a vet tech who fosters kittens for her local humane society, kept texting me pictures of these babies as they grew and became available for adoption, and 2 weeks ago I caved in and brought home Nuala Rose (brown tiger stripe) and Emmy Lou (all dark grey) and they now command every inch of space in my house and heart.
A favorite game is chasing each other at top speed across my hardwood floors, hence the ponies. Also making anything available into a toy, including their own tails. They do spinnies, pursuing said tails rapidly in one direction, stopping, recalculating, and chasing them madly in the other direction. They wrestle like pros, becoming a roiling ball of legs, tails and ears, never using claws but looking like they should emerge bloody from the battle. They never hurt each other, and seconds after a serious tussle they are curled up together and lovingly grooming each other. Breakfast and supper times must be strictly adhered to, or I may find a kitten climbing my leg and meowing loudly or licking my face at 6 a.m. They compete for lap time, and I am often pinned to the couch by two purring bodies happily snuggled up. They are delightful and hilarious, affectionate and tirelessly curious. They are giving me a refresher course in patience and letting go of the need to control things (paper napkins stolen from the table and shredded, games of tag on the bed at 3 a.m.). They make me laugh. They give me respite from the dark days of winter and the often demoralizing state of the world.
Living with two energetic kittens reminds me again of Karen’s favorite aphorism, “It’s only a thrift store.” Patience and letting go of absolute control are vital to moving through our days at Experienced Goods, as are laughing and not taking things too seriously. For example, the often divisive issue of requiring masks in the store. Most of our customers willingly comply with Brattleboro’s indoor mask mandate, but some do not, and when we offer unmasked customers a mask, they may refuse to wear it. Is this a serious issue? Definitely. Is it worth a loud and upsetting argument in the store? No. Fighting over such a polarizing topic cannot result in a good outcome, no matter who gets the upper hand, and we’ve learned that after offering a shopper a mask and hearing their refusal to wear it, we need to let go of the need to control their behavior.
In a much lighter vein, I sometimes go out on the sales floor and find the clothing racks in sad disarray. Clothes off their hangers and on the floor, shirts hung inside out, items in the incorrect size categories, tags torn off. Dressing rooms strewn with clothes a shopper didn’t want. Being slightly obsessive about tidiness, I feel my frustration rise and my temper start to simmer. “What is wrong with people?”, I grouse under my breath. And then I spend a few minutes rehanging, retagging, and straightening and order is easily restored for an hour or so. I roll my eyes and think, “Job security!”
I love the phrase, “It’s like herding cats,” often used to describe recalcitrant, unmanageable people or situations. As the adoptive mom of Nuala and Emmy, I can attest to the accuracy of that saying: Cats are not herdable! They are slippery and sneaky, and nothing stands in the way of them pursuing their own agendas. So why herd them? They will not do what you tell them to, they will stampede through the house and knock things over and shred things. They will also amaze you with their resilience and resourcefulness, make you smile and curl up on your lap and offer unconditional love. So why worry about shredded napkins or a lost hour of sleep? It’s all replaceable.
People, for the most part, are not herdable, either, and that’s a good thing. We do a certain amount of herding at Experienced Goods to keep things running smoothly and stave off the worst of the chaos, but it’s people with their personalities, quirks and unherdablility that make our days interesting and never boring, and sometimes make us purr with the delight of happy cats.