I saw, finally, how much mess I had created over the last year, I realized in a moment of clarity I have no right to create and leave messes.
Creating and leaving messes disrespects me and the time I worked to be able to buy these expensive tools; it disrespects my partner. Why should she suffer and look at all my crap, disorganized?
What I find most appalling about my messiness is the privilege I think I have to disrespect my space and my things. There are scores of people here and around the world who have not nearly enough to eat, let alone any money to buy bicycle tools.
The culture of overwrought consumption and perpetual messiness that is American life seems somehow terribly elitist. At the very least it is terribly unthinking and contributes to my own suffering.