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Hoard Is a Funny Looking Word...
Dec. 14th, 2004 12:42 pmApparently the concept of the Amazon Wishlist is foreign to me as I see something on someone else's list and I am all "Oh, yeah - I want that too!"
This is just like when I was a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons and yelling "I want that!" at every commercial during the break. Even if I didn't quite know what it was - I still wanted it. Not having it might mean I was missing out.
Aquisition is an instinctive response, but man, is it ever honed by the time we reach adulthood. So that is something I am working on in the New Year - or something I would work on, except financially I really can't buy a lot anyway and I've already done that "Go through your closets and donate what you don't wear" thing a few times and while I still have waaaay too many clothes that I don't wear - they actually do make me happy. I am happy that they are there.
My old navy blue (heh - not from Old Navy. Old Navy didn't exist when I bought this sweater) cotton pullover I have had since I was 15 and the sleeve has a huge safety pin in it to keep it from unraveling (it has been unraveling since before I learned to knit) brings me great joy. I haven't worn it in at least 2 years but I know that if I *need* to wear it - it is there and that is a comfort.
So I can understand this getting rid of material objects and freeing yourself from the burden of unnecessary possessions. I can. I actually think it is a wonderful thing to do. But... sometimes things are all we have left to connect us to the past. Sometimes having a bunch of stuff *will* make your life easier. Sometimes you want to wear your oldest and rattiest and most out of date sweater because you feel old and ratty and out of date.
I mean - just this week I wanted to look up some research on psychological development of juveniles in detainment facilities and also on situational sexual behavior versus preference and once upon a time I had all of that stored because the stuff I was interested in as an undergrad -- well the person doesn't really change, now do they? And it is gone. Either I tossed it or it was a casualty of the leak in my parent's basement, but at one point in my life I decided that all the papers I have written were just one more thing holding me back and *poof* they are gone. And that makes me sad now, because I *liked* writing them and I'd like to revisit some of the ideas again, now that I have more time to think about these kinds of things.
So maybe it isn't that I have a problem with these Toss-N-Burn "experts" on TV. Clutter is overwhelming and can bring on depression - this is true. Maybe it is just that I've often made the wrong choice about what to keep and what to lose and I didn't realize it until much later. So maybe another opinion would be a good thing when making these kinds of choices?
But they will pry my Angel DVDs out of my cold dead hands.
This is just like when I was a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons and yelling "I want that!" at every commercial during the break. Even if I didn't quite know what it was - I still wanted it. Not having it might mean I was missing out.
Aquisition is an instinctive response, but man, is it ever honed by the time we reach adulthood. So that is something I am working on in the New Year - or something I would work on, except financially I really can't buy a lot anyway and I've already done that "Go through your closets and donate what you don't wear" thing a few times and while I still have waaaay too many clothes that I don't wear - they actually do make me happy. I am happy that they are there.
My old navy blue (heh - not from Old Navy. Old Navy didn't exist when I bought this sweater) cotton pullover I have had since I was 15 and the sleeve has a huge safety pin in it to keep it from unraveling (it has been unraveling since before I learned to knit) brings me great joy. I haven't worn it in at least 2 years but I know that if I *need* to wear it - it is there and that is a comfort.
So I can understand this getting rid of material objects and freeing yourself from the burden of unnecessary possessions. I can. I actually think it is a wonderful thing to do. But... sometimes things are all we have left to connect us to the past. Sometimes having a bunch of stuff *will* make your life easier. Sometimes you want to wear your oldest and rattiest and most out of date sweater because you feel old and ratty and out of date.
I mean - just this week I wanted to look up some research on psychological development of juveniles in detainment facilities and also on situational sexual behavior versus preference and once upon a time I had all of that stored because the stuff I was interested in as an undergrad -- well the person doesn't really change, now do they? And it is gone. Either I tossed it or it was a casualty of the leak in my parent's basement, but at one point in my life I decided that all the papers I have written were just one more thing holding me back and *poof* they are gone. And that makes me sad now, because I *liked* writing them and I'd like to revisit some of the ideas again, now that I have more time to think about these kinds of things.
So maybe it isn't that I have a problem with these Toss-N-Burn "experts" on TV. Clutter is overwhelming and can bring on depression - this is true. Maybe it is just that I've often made the wrong choice about what to keep and what to lose and I didn't realize it until much later. So maybe another opinion would be a good thing when making these kinds of choices?
But they will pry my Angel DVDs out of my cold dead hands.
