The way we left it

What is our obsession with prolonging the new of it all? If we buy a couch, a shirt, a towel, whatever, that initial sheen is preserved for as long as possible. Don't use that one! It's new!!! There is such terror in staring decay in the face; I have friends who keep their remote control in its plastic wrapper. But I don't want to live in this sanitised cleanliness, I want to get grubby and discard, to get my paws dirty and leave footmarks. I don't want a world left untouched and unscathed by my presence, a world as clean as if I'd never been there. I want to leave holes in the walls and wine stains on the carpet, a history of spills and scrapes to map out my existence. And is that wrong? Well, if I want my holding deposit back, apparently so.