More confessions of a quasi-hoarder
One of the things I tend to struggle with is what to do with things inherited from family. My parents have collected a lot of things over the years. Now that they are both elderly, they have begun the process of asking their children what things they want. I have chosen at least one item I'm particularly fond of.
Here is my problem, while my parents have a number of cool things (my dad was in the air force after all, and they collected a lot from overseas); if I take their things it leaves precious little space for me to collect my own things.
This is coupled with my weirdly overdeveloped sense of sentimentality. When I'm cruising a thrift shop, I often feel sad when I see something clearly personal on the shelves. I also react a bit strongly to Neil Diamond's "Morningside" http://www.lyricsdomain.com/14/neil_diamond/morningside.html. In this song, a man carves a beautiful table intended for his children that nobody wants.
While I can see parents wanting to give their children something from themeselves and memories from their lives, I can also see the burden of for children in taking on their parents things since it crowds out their own lives.
Of course, the true bottom line is that stuff is just stuff. It can be taken, given, lost, destroyed and so on. While it can have a profound effect on a person, it is not the person.
Here is my problem, while my parents have a number of cool things (my dad was in the air force after all, and they collected a lot from overseas); if I take their things it leaves precious little space for me to collect my own things.
This is coupled with my weirdly overdeveloped sense of sentimentality. When I'm cruising a thrift shop, I often feel sad when I see something clearly personal on the shelves. I also react a bit strongly to Neil Diamond's "Morningside" http://www.lyricsdomain.com/14/neil_diamond/morningside.html. In this song, a man carves a beautiful table intended for his children that nobody wants.
While I can see parents wanting to give their children something from themeselves and memories from their lives, I can also see the burden of for children in taking on their parents things since it crowds out their own lives.
Of course, the true bottom line is that stuff is just stuff. It can be taken, given, lost, destroyed and so on. While it can have a profound effect on a person, it is not the person.