The Opposite of Thrifty

We all have stuff … and letting go of that stuff can be hard, especially if you convince you’re self that you’re being thrifty by holding on to it.

Take our old first-generation Xbox (in the real world version of this scoutmaster minute, I had it with me; the picture on the post comes from Mediawiki Commons). It came out in 2001, which means it’s older than every scout in the troop. In its day, we played a lot of great games on it, including the original Halo. We have fond memories of playing games on the Xbox (this one came from my parents’ house) but over time, we moved on. We got Xbox 360s. Nintendo DSs. PlayStation 4s. Nintendo Switches. As a result, this Xbox hasn’t been played in years.

Yet, it was still at home, gathering dust. Now some people keep vintage game systems so they can play classic games on them. Heck, I have an old Apple II+ computer in my work office because that’s the computer I learned how to program on (and play this awesome game called Colossal Cave … but I digress).

But that’s not why we kept this Xbox. We kept it because my family thought we might play it again someday, and well, why recycle it if you might use it? We spent money on it right? So why throw it away?

In truth though, none of us were ever going to use it again. Keeping it isn’t being thrifty. Keeping is actually the opposite; it’s wasting space. So this Xbox? It’s off to electronics recycling at Staples, where hopefully it’ll do more good than it would sitting in our basement.

Ken Newquist is the scoutmaster of BSA Troop 3 in Easton, Pa.