Throughout our life, we seem to be trying to act like little squirrels or pack rats, running around furiously collecting objects. In truth, are we ever able to let go of ’stuff?’ Surely, we once had a need for that old dusty Yamaha acoustic guitar taking up space over in the living room but we just can’t remember why. For some reason, we find it hard to let go of much of anything we collect.
Maybe the thing was bought in some pawnshop back during the salad days — otherwise known as the ‘college experience’ — and it was never really used because there never seemed to be enough time to actually learn how to make the barre chords necessary to pick out the first few measures of Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water.’ For whatever reason, there it sits in the corner, now collecting dust.
But still, something cool looking like a guitar (even if it isn’t screaming loud electric model) may be able to make it all the way to the end of our journey. But how many people go through life holding on to something like tiny ice skates or wet dry vacuums? For sure, if there’s a way for someone to collect stuff there’s sure to be someone out there with both of those items in his or her basement.
Maybe the vacuum was going to be used to finally get a handle on the garage and the water leakage that sometimes resulted because we just never got around to applying new seals to the bottom of the garage door. At any rate, the days when we wanted to use such a powerful vacuum are probably now long gone and receding rapidly in the rearview mirror that we call our past life.
Being reasonable, it’s probably the fact that we hold on to a lot of stuff because it tends to bring back fond memories, even if that stuff we’re holding onto includes a busted tennis racket. Maybe it got that way because we were trying to emulate John McEnroe in his heyday, though it’s hard to see how THAT could bring back pleasant memories of tennis games gone by.
And it’s probably a good thing not to even visit the subject of children’s furniture. Maybe little Johnny once had a need for cherry baby furniture but that was probably back when he was, indeed, a baby and not now; when he’s getting ready to finish his master’s program and has long ago forgotten why he liked the furniture in the first place. That stuff seems like a good candidate for garage sale, right?
Maybe our accumulated ’stuff’ and why we never let it go is one of life’s great mysteries. Getting rid of it can be wrenching and frustrating at the same time and holding onto it can be just as frustrating and annoying while also being wrenching. Maybe we also need some of this stuff to keep our memories fresh, even after we’ve started drawing Social Security. It’s a reason, at least.
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