The Little World

The ideal stash is just as easy to construct as the ideal house or the ideal marriage.

All you need is about ten centuries of unremitting toil to buy, shelve, rearrange, sell, build, discard, and trade your scale model kits and eventually you will have it perfect. I should start now before the summer heat sets in.

You will have dozens of people who can tell you how to do it, and after you have started they will be joined by hundreds more who can tell you where you went wrong. Being a scale modeller in these circumstances is roughly like being a famous actor doing one-night off-Broadway shows. Or being a tail gunner in a B-17 with only two engines. You WILL be the centre of attention.

There is another sobering thought: you will change your mind occasionally and your best laid plans will gang agley. Be prepared to be wrong at your own expense.

My ideal stash is filled with things I want to build for some reason; things that have suggested a plan. And not so many that I am struggling for a choice. I do like a small shelf full of promise, but I must be diligent and keep that promise.

Note that living in our city at the end of the world means that we do not get all the things we wish for. Fortunately, it also means we do not get all the things we deserve.