A Life after Gathering Stuff

 

As I've mentioned in other articles on this blog, I live in an assisted living building which means that we have staff available to us 24 hours a day. The building is 14 years old now and so they've decided to replace the carpet with vinyl flooring. This is good, the original carpet was beginning to look a little frayed. This has meant that a lot of material items, which we will henceforth call "Stuff", in honour of the late comedian George Carlin, has been pulled out and rearranged to make room for the work crew. It is amazing how much stuff there is. It seems to have come out of nowhere and yet I know that it is been there all along. 

George Carlin's classic standup routine "Your Stuff"

Of that huge mountain of stuff how much do we really need? Why are we so attached to gathering as many belongings as possible around us? I mean when you think about it only a small fraction of that stuff adds to your life in the long run. Works of art are marvellous items of stuff and that lends them some merit in hanging around for a long time. But we all have that dear friend who's apartment or house it's just overflowing with stuff which we all know they don't need. Yet they cannot seem to get rid of it. What in human nature is being met here? What is the urge that is being satisfied or is it an insecurity.

When I looked into this building I made a conscious choice to minimize the gathering of stuff because I just moved out of the apartment building where it spent 34 years gathering stuff and most of it was utterly useless and just the pain to get rid of. But some people in my building and friends I know can't get enough stuff. They are constantly on Amazon or Best Buy or Walmart paying good money for more, and more stuff. I have seen suites that are crammed full of it. Bringing me to my ultimate conclusion of the assuming that they must get an adrenaline hit when they gather or pay for stuff.

When I saw the number chairs downstairs I thought "My God! We must have a billion seats." The human race just keeps cranking more stuff out.

For me when I finally did move and got rid of 90% of my stuff. After the shock wore off I found it quite liberating. Yes, there can be "A Life after Gathering Stuff ".

Have a great day. This is been a random thought which just evolved into a short blurb.
Patrick