I've closed yet another chapter in this myriad of experience called life. Yet another move to a new location. It's a much smaller place that required me to look at all of the flotsam that I've accumulated in the last 5 years. It's something that all of us should do at one time or another. I mean, every day you acquire some new possession, whether it's something as simple as a piece of mail, a card, a CD, a stick of deodorant, or an iPod. The constant barrage of capitalism is sometimes overwhelming and you have to consider whether you really need 'more stuff'.
Things I had to get rid of included a dining room table, a telescope, a pile of my kids toys that he's either too big to play with or simply doesn't need anymore, clothes, books, belts, and some old chairs. There's probably a lot of things that I've left out, but I imagine that the things I've neglected to include were likely just meaningless junk that I really had no use for.
"There's going to be a lot of things in this world that you're going to have no use for. But when you get blue, and you've lost all your dreams, there's nothing like a campfire and a can of beans." --Tom Waits "The Black Rider"
It seems we are truly unique among the creatures of this planet. We acquire more pointless baggage than any other organism on the planet. We're the only thing on this rock that actually 'hoards' other animals. It's puzzling when you consider it. It begs the question of 'Why?".
I'm constantly drawn back to a statment from the film "Fight Club" and I know it's from other places as well.
"The things you own, eventually own you."
It's so true, because you acquire so much that you have a hard time letting it go. Soon, it becomes you, your width, your breadth, the encapsulation of your human experience. One day, when you're gone, all that is left is a pile of possessions that those you once loved and love you have to find new homes, new uses, or to ascribe new meanings to.
I know this fear intimately, for I am the child of individuals who are reaching their final days. They have acquired significant material wealth and I, along with my brother, will be responsible for discovering a means for their material that they leave behind when they depart this consciousness.
Do the things that they own, own them? Yes, in a manner of speaking, for they are tied so closely to the items that they have acquired that they can not move easily throughout their home. Is there value, yes, there are many things of value in the great stores of history they have acquired. But, to whom does it provide worth? No one at the moment.
I've encouraged them to dispose of as much of the flotsam that they have acquired so they can enjoy themselves in these latter years, but they are happy owning and being owned by their acquisitions. Yet, I have great trepidation for the future for what is to come when my parents are no longer around to own these things they have acquired. I fear that so much of it will mean too much to me and my brother. Will we have the strength and piece of mind to part with so many items that our parents devoted themselves to acquiring? Will the allure of assuming ownership of all of their material overcome our individual lack of material? It remains to be seen. I hope that it is many years to the resolution of the questions I have about what will become of that, yet it is likely nearer than I wish.
Meanwhile, here I am in a smaller apartment, basically 2 rooms, a closet, and a bathroom, with a meager kitchen. But, it is enough for a single man with few attachments.
