The meaning of things

Cross-posted from my public blog. I think that only two people subscribe to both.

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I just finished reading Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, after reading a review on unclutterer.com and, ironically, just HAVING TO HAVE IT. :-) What can I say... the meaning of physical objects has been on my mind this spring.

There were more ironic moments during the reading of it. Where'd I put my book? That book about those poor people who can't find anything in their piles of stuff... But there were also many moments of true self-recognition. Yes, even for me. From page 49, My own daughter became attached to a blanket she named Mana. Though now in her twenties, she takes Mana with her whenever she travels. I'm 32 and married, and I still sleep with my equivalent blanket! It seems that, in general, what hoarders feel is not so different from how I feel about my blanket, which is not a clinical problem; unfortunately for the hoarders, some feel that way about nearly everything. Understandably, they can't get rid of things as quickly as things come into their houses.

Also, from page 151, Ownership seems to carry with it the responsibility for making sure things are used to their full potential and not wasted. Doesn't this have much in common with minimalists, who don't want to own things they won't use to their full potential? I've had thoughts about stewardship of and responsibility for objects for as long as I can remember. I've often avoided acquiring things, like vehicles, that would require me to own even more things in order to maintain the original thing.

As for my life when I'm not reading, I continue to go minimalist. I carried heavy loads to Goodwill on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, most of the items being sentimental/decorative in nature. They reminded me of old business trips, old vacations, old boyfriends, old jobs. I still liked them... but I took pictures of them and then let them go. I replaced just one of the wall hangings with a new one, a totally abstract cluster of circles from Pier 1.

What I'm emptying my life for, and what will happen next, are things we're all going to find out. Stay tuned!

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What I didn't mention publicly is that there's a hoarder on our street. At least, there is a car that fills up, and I mean all the way up, with garbage. It's been missing; today it's back and I noticed it has a visitor's parking permit on its dashboard. Hmm...

Pigeon dans paysage blue

I've had a poster of this Jean-Paul Avisse work for approximately forever... okay, since 1993.



As with various cool posters of heisenbug's, the artist is findable online but a book of his work seems to have never been published.

Avisse also did a lot of other stuff, much of which is on this weird Russian Myspace-type site (warning, slow to load, cheesy artwork). More of his work, including my poster, is here. He seems to have been prolific and done pretty well, and had an exhibition just in 2008, so why no book? Grr, the art world is beyond me. If I had a book I might not mind getting rid of the poster. Maybe the rule is that you have to wait for the artist to die before you can have a book.