Understanding Lars Eighner

1. When he began Dumpster diving he didn't particularly like that word so he would use terms such as "scavenging" and "scrounging". He says this when he means to be obscure. Lars described that lived from the refuse of others. "He was a scavenger". He felt it sound more honorable niche. Others would use "foraging" to be polite but he reserved that word for gathering nuts and berries. "Dumpster diving" seemed too cute and inaccurate to him because he felt he lacked the athletic ability to lower himself into the Dumpster as true divers did.

2. A new scavenger will be filled with disgust and self loathing. He will feel ashamed, so he will lurk around, ducking behind things, dive at night and skulking around. This may bring suspicion to a person. Although he may not be able to erase the stigma of eating out of the dumpster the stage will pass with experience. Once a scavenger finds useful items like shoes, clothes, calculator etc., he begins to understand that people throw away good stuff. Then his Dumpster shyness begins to dissipate. He then may get lost once finding good things. He may feel that he can repair them. Keeping things although they have completely no value to him or market. They may feel that since it is free why not keep it. That's when they become lost and may not be able to recover. This may sound like a hoarder.

3. He found from scavenging two deep lessons. The first to take what he can use and let the rest go by. The second is of the transience of material being. He feels that he shares values with the wealthy. He feels that they both know they have plenty more from what we came from. Maybe meaning their money and values and his values that he finds in dumpsters.  He seemed very in touch with life and nature. Every time he touches something in the dumpster he envisions throwing it away maybe for the next diver to find it more valuable. He would always find the bright side of things. I personally can not imagine eating out of a Dumpster. I do not care if is in a can. Some how he manage to leave the shame behind and learn how to survive off of garbage. When he stated that scavenging is a modern form of self-reliance because the cities are now filled with plenty of Dumpsters. I feel that he is saying this is more common now. Since they have more Dumpsters there will be more valuable items for divers to obtain.

4. Although I can not see myself diving in Dumpsters, I can see how he may find value from others trash. In our society we do take things for granted. It's easier for us to throw things away and say we can purchase another one. Even if our fund are low. A few years ago I had guilt of throwing things away that may not been needed to be thrown. So now I donate. I know there are others out there that need it more than I do. Reading this actually makes me want to really put thought into what I do not need to throw away.