Have you ever heard of 6-12 Insect Repellent?

We now have a bottle in our possession…long story how it got into our hands 🙂 but let’s just say that when we got it, we didn’t think anything of it.

I came across the following advertisement in an on line copy of Life Magazine – August 10 1959

 

With my curiosity piqued I did some more research on the brand. Discontinued in 1991, I was shocked to find people selling vials of the 6-12 Insect Repellent on E-bay for between $8.49 and $15.00 US D depending on the package.

This got me thinking about trash and treasure.

I really didn’t think that the bottle of 6-12 in my position had any value beyond a laugh or two at what was then and perhaps some discussion about the odorless liquid in this container – that it might be more harmful to me than helpful given the date of manufacture – more than 24 years ago!

Yet a further search showed that it was also a collectors item for some.

Books are like that too.

At one time in my life I followed the New York Times top 10 bestsellers and I bought books accordingly. I found some were good, some were “OK” and some I could barely make my way through to the end.

Book reviews also show a range of experiences from “loved it…you must read it” to “I can’t believe all these people said this book was good. A better book is X by Y author.”

I am aware that PR machines sometimes make some authors and their books seem larger than life so that they could garner tons of book sales but I’m not concerned about that here.

What I’ve come to realize is that we all need to decide for ourselves what is spectacular, great, good and not worth our time. It’s a constant choice that we are required to make in ALL areas of our lives. We need to know and understand WHO WE REALLY ARE!

It’s comfortable having someone make choices for us so we don’t have to experience the pain of a bad choice. But even when the majority may find that they love a book or a movie, or a play or the latest techno-gadget – WE MAY NOT LIKE IT!

Let’s not devolve into a sheep like coma – choosing to follow in our lives rather than lead – to become dependent  versus becoming more self reliant.

I’ll let Hugh MacLeod complete today’s post with this illustration…

 

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