STUFF

Stuff...(stuff)..stack it on, stack it on up

Stuff...never gonna ever get enough stuff

Oh it's treasure til' it's mine then it ain't worth a dime

It's stuff (stuff) spreading like weeds

Dragging me under in an endless seas of stuff

(Stuff) There ain't no end

Got to get a bigger place so I can move in...

More stuff...



From the song: "Stuff" by Diamond Rio



People love collecting things.

One of my favorite television shows is called, "American Pickers". It is a show about two guys who travel the country looking through old barns and building where people have spent a lifetime collecing "treasure".... old toys and cars and signs and some really crazy stuff. It's interesting to see all the stuff that people accumulate over a lifetime. The "pickers" try to buy the various items so they can re-sell the stuff at their own flea-market type of store....
It seems most of the collectors are older guys and gals, coming to the end of their lives, so they are ready to part with some of their things. Some of their things,... not all.. just "some". It's still amazing to me the stuff they just can't let go of.


I remember when Beanie Babies were the big "collectible". Folks were trading them, buying them, making showcases for them in their homes. They were all over the place,.. and they weren't, as I recall,.... cheap.

Now you can go into about any thrift store and find them. Pitiful little things,...lambs and frogs and squirrels and bunnies and lobsters. Once dearly treasured and loved,.. now abandoned by their owners on the ash-heap of history.

Then there was the big baseball card bonanza. I particularly remember that one because my kids were at the age when they just "had" to have that Jose Conseco rookie card. The one that sold for about 70 bucks. I think it's now worth about a nickel, especially since that game where Jose tried to catch the outfield fly with the top of his head. And Mark McGwire. Well,... his card used to be on steroids. Now it's just a skinny little cardboard reminder of the once heralded superstar.



Stuff....



I collect (collected).... record albums. You probably remember the old, black vinyl records with all the cool artwork and inserts.... and clicks and pops and "white noise".... being "spun"on the old turntables. I still love the smell of the old vinyl records, and, occasionally will rummage through an old stack at a garage sale, searching for that elusive "Butcher Cover" album. (Google it, young'uns).



Stuff....



As I've gotten older I've had to take a serious look at the time I spend on this planet. It's gotten a lot shorter,... and, I hope I've learned to value it a bit more than I have in the past.

I am finding that I no longer have the desire to collect "stuff".

I can just picture my kids or grandkids sitting around sifting through my "stuff" after I'm gone. They're saying things like.... "What is all this junk!"... "What in the world is THIS thing?....and why did dad keep holding onto it?"....

And finally.... "Hey, can you grab another trash-bag? I've gotten these three filled up already?"...



Stuff.....



It's sort of an indication of the human condition. We're always trying to fill our lives with "something" that hopefully will give lives some meaning. I think it's our attempt to fill this God-sized hole in our souls.

Whether it's Beanie Babies, old records, baseball cards, cars, old clocks, old lunch-boxes (the list is endless),.... or the next "big thing", whatever it may be, I think it helps to take a step back and look at our lives and what we're doing with our time and talents.

One reason I started writing this blog is to share some of my feelings about life, love, and addiction issues. It's sort of my way of "journaling". When I write about these things, in a lot of ways (most ways), I'm simply preaching to myself or venting, and trying to fumble my way down this road of life the best I know how. I don't want "stuff" to get in the way, as it usually has a way of doing. I want to get the "junk" out of my life so I can move about more freely, have more time to give back a bit of the God-given life that I've been blessed with.

I don't want my grandkids filling up trashbags and thinking....that's my life.



Stuff..... How much of it do we need....really?