One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure

Stanley Diamond once beautifully wrote,

‘What is beautiful today maybe an embarrassment tomorrow’.

This saying is true in every essence as it points towards reality. The world, in which we live, has never
been perpetual. World moves, people change and so do their minds. Every individual in the world thinks
differently and that is one meaning of this essay’s topic: ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.
Every person holds a different meaning of beauty. Some things that seem beautiful to one may be
considered horrible by the other. Even the choices of humans change over time.

Let’s study a simple example of Nokia Cell Phones. In the 1990s, the Nokia mobile phones were
considered the world’s one of best invents. But just a little after the advent of Androids and Apple
Smartphones, Nokia found itself completely fading away. Nokia is the best example of something
beautiful today becoming embarrassment tomorrow. The Apple and Android Smartphones creased Nokia
with their modern features that Nokia failed to adopt otherwise Nokia enjoyed a worldwide success in
every way. People swiftly started testing new smartphones and ultimately became hooked on them. We
can even find a small Nokia Cell phone lying somewhere around unused in many people’s houses.
People clearly dejected it after the advent of great Smartphones. But again the reality, that the Apple and
Android cellphones contain the unlimited magical feature, in no way depicts that Nokia cellphones are
useless. The rich and modern may deject it but for the poor and old-fashioned, it’s a gem. Using
smartphones are not easy for everyone. The complicated modern features like touch system run over the
head of the old and poor person. You might have seen that old people prefer to use old phones with
simple and easy to use features. Similarly, it’s easy for an uneducated person to dial a call from the small
Nokia cellphone with keypad than a big touch Smartphone. It’s also less costly and cheap than other
phones. Nokia is an example of something that is useless for one but very valuable to the other. The
same goes out for the old simple TV sets and radios.

This world and its inhabitants have always been like this- praising more and never settling for rest. There
might be very few people in the world who are always at content with whatever they have in life.
According to a report by psycholoGenie; humans contain the habit of comparing themselves to others
with respect to social, emotional or financial conditions which eventually lead them to low self-esteem.
They always look towards what greater others have hence turned away from their blessings. In this game
of comparing and reaching the level of other person, people often start taking things for granted. For
instance, a person with an ordinary phone will desire a smart one, the one with small car will wish for a
big one, one living in small house will always strive for a big one, a college student will always want to get
into the collage above that, and a person with a small job will always adore big companies. And when
these people will attain these desires, it will become difficult for them to go back to their past lives, but that
does not make these things worthless. Below the above-mentioned people, there will always be a group
of people who only wish to have things like a simple bicycle, a mobile, one-time food, a cemented house,
a job at least and a poor student desiring only for education. This is the cycle of life; for the low class,
middle ones live a satisfied life and to middle ones, their life is nothing in front of the upper class.
Nothing in the world is an absolute waste. As there is this beautiful notion; ‘It is not waste, until it is
wasted’. Everything contains something in it that can be proven beneficial if used rightfully. On daily basis,
humans dispose of so much waste that can be used for so many good things. Many people are clueless
about how many people, on daily basis, make their living by picking up and recycling the leftovers. Our
old clothes, bags or shoes which we consider old-fashioned today or the food for which our taste has
changed, or the cycle, bike or small car that is standing as waste in our garages, the old toys in which our
kids have no interest today or the outdated mobile phones, TVs at our homes may serve as trash for us
but in reality all the above functions as treasures for thousands of people out in the world.

Similarly, as the world moving towards a more technological era with each passing minute, the new
generation fails to understand the importance of their forefather’s stuff. The electronics, old music, use of
CDs and DVDs, stamps, postcards, old cameras, TV shows and deep-rooted traditions are all no less
than a wealth for our elders but to the current generation, it contains not much value.

Human is always attracted towards things that are unacquainted to them and craving continually for them
is his nature. Likewise, nature has also provided human with full strength to grow and become better. But
one must always remember that on obtaining new things, we must not kick out the old ones as trash that
can, in one way or other, prove helpful or valuable to someone.