Personal Property

During the last few days I’ve had a hankering to write some more about stuff. Oh, you know what I’m talking about, all the extra stuff in our homes and our garages that we can’t seem to get rid of. As I may have previously mentioned, we’ve gotten both the kids shipped off to college during the past week. In the course of that process, they emptied their rooms of all that they thought they’ll be needing for the next six months. Their hampers are empty, their cars are out of the way, I’ve returned the borrowed chairs from the graduation party last June and given away the extra washer and drier we were storing. Amazingly, I still can’t seem to get a second car (mine) into the garage. Too much stuff. Does your life feel like that as well sometimes? Most of us are at least mildly obsessed with stuff. We want it. We enjoy it for a while. We abandon it. We store it. Eventually, we give it away ... eventually. The world has entirely too much stuff, but we just seem to keep collecting. Then we have to manage and store it all forever. My goal the past few years has been to end up with less each year instead of more. I’ve been only mildly successful, but being an eternal optimist I have high hopes for the future of those efforts. We all have so much more than we need, or need so much less than we have. You can look at it either way, but the results are always the same. I have even joked with my family in recent years that sometime I’m just going to set one corner of the house on fire so everyone will grab what they really care about and we can just start over with the important stuff we saved. No one ever thought that was funny. Regardless, the fact is that all we really need is the people in our lives. Maybe if we weren’t so busy procuring, maintaining and storing all of our stuff we’d have more time for those important people. What I do know is that we hardly ever see a U-Haul trailer being towed behind a hearse. That gives a pretty good indication of the lasting and eternal value of my possessions. Maybe I don’t need quite so much after all. Do you?

Personal Property
An attic full of memories
A garage of souvenirs
It's funny all that we collect
As we stroll through the years
A closet full of "too small" clothes
And drawers packed to the brim
With worn out socks and tee shirts
That were bought upon a whim
Kitchen cupboards over flow
With gadgets by the score
That chop and mix and blend and roast
Alas, they're used no more
Fitted sheets and blankets
From the bed we gave away
Bowling balls and baseball bats
From kids who used to play
Spare tires from a car we sold
Paint cans, old and rusty
A steering wheel from someone's boat
The Christmas wreath, now dusty
Our home is a warehouse, now quite overfilled
With the junk which was once our desire
These years of collecting have taken their toll
We can only hope for a fire
By Frank Carpenter ©