Monday Moods: Pass it on

I sold three camera lenses and a digital camera last week. I have been buying cameras and lenses since the mid 1970's, this is one of the few times I have ever sold anything. 

What did I part with? One lens I had two of, I sold the less desirable of the two, the other two were for a camera system I no longer use. One of them has a great story, I bought it in a moment of desperation in Paris, to replace the only lens I have ever broken. I dropped a lens on a stone floor in the Louvre.  Before breakfast the next morning I went to a camera store across from the hotel, and he miraculously he had a lens that would work, a slightly better lens than the one I broke. I was shocked to find one that would work. The other lens I sold was given to me, and I never used it. It didn't sync with the cameras I currently use. The camera I sold was a nice quality Nikon compact, that neither of us use any longer. Our phones take better photos and are easier to use. I took it out last week and used it for a couple of hours, came home and thought, I will never use that again. 

The equipment didn't sell for much, $104 total. Not really worth the drive and the time. So why did I sell it? It was sitting in a drawer, useable, but unused by me. Loved, but not being enjoyed. Someone will use it, two of the lenses are for film cameras that have become popular again. Selling them to someone who will sell them on, was passing them onto the next user. I hope that they are enjoyed, loved, and create stories for the next user. Maybe someone will drop a lens on a stone floor and desperately need a replacement, and KEH will suddenly have two in stock. 

There were a few items that I didn't sell. A film camera body, that was in the wrong color, and has little demand - no offer. 

Another no sale was a nice digital that is just one generation too old, the offer was less than $5 with a recommendation to "find someone who will use it, and give it to them." I will. This triggered a story, a confession. A couple of years ago I gave away a 16mm Bolex movie camera, a really good one with three lenses. I had owned for 40+ years and never used it. I bought it from the original owner in the early 1980s. I traded emails with someone who was borrowing cameras like this to make movies the old fashioned way on film. He didn't own one, they are hard to find and expensive when you do. I sent it to him as a gift to the next generation. 

What do we have in our lives that we don't use, that someone else might love and enjoy. These are opportunities to make difference in someone's life. Remember in the end, you can't take it with you.