Good morning all! I hope everyone is doing OK today out there in Internetland. I wanted to hat today about the amount of clutter that is in our lives. This past weekend, my wife and I finally decided to start cleaning out the junk in our house and our lives. We had been putting this off because it is such a daunting task. We have 20 years of crap that has been collecting dust in our house. Why do we have so much stuff? No clue. Well that is not entirely true. I do know why we have certain things. I have too many CDs because I have this compulsion to buy them. Maybe it is filling some sort of void in me. I suppose that why a lot of people end up with collections. The real question is, does this bring any joy into my life? In some cases, yes. Over the past several years however, it seems like I have been collecting for the sake of collecting. Movies never get watched, CDs never listened to. It is frustrating because it is not like I don’t have the time, I do. It really is a combination of depression and not enjoying things as I used to when I was younger. It is a frustrating feeling wanting to do something as simple as listen to music or watch a movie and there is something inside that just will not let you. I could go down this rabbit hold all day, but I will save it for another post.
Back to the subject at hand: clutter. look around you and I bet there are 10 things you could throw away within your eyesight and you would not miss. In my case it would be twice that. There are things I do not need, but for some reason I have not let them go over the years. Maybe it is a sentimental attachment or just laziness. I am sure it is a combination of both. We equate our “stuff” with who we are. It’s a measure of the lengths we will go to just to have and covet some toy, cd, book, whatever your weakness may be. We are all guilty of this to some degree. I am worse than some as far as music goes. I love cds and my collection does give me a certain amount of happiness, but not as much as it probably should. It is hard when there is no one local that shares your love of something. That is part of it too, wanting to share the thing you love with someone else, to be validated. We need to know there are others that feel the way we do about our passions. It drives us. To have that connection and be able to talk about any thing you love with someone is a great feeling. I think for my part, I have been buying and not sharing in the hopes I would someday have that person locally. The internet is great for that, but there is something about hanging out, sipping some nice bourbon and discussing music, movies or whatever it is you enjoy with another person that is actually there beside you. That is something that the internet just cannot give you. I guess in a way, your clutter can bring about good things.
This was definitely a meandering post today, but it felt good to talk about it. I am still working on posting more, so please be patient.
Take care!
Mid-Life Crisis Task Force 