Stuff

Things I collect:
- fortune cookie papers
- sand
- instruments
- annoying habits
- foreign aphorisms
- words
- dream fragments
- postcards
- ticket stubs
- nail polish

Most of the things I collect are stuff: tangible, material objects. They have no inherent value other than what I impart onto them, with the exception of instruments.  I like collecting things; I'm a very disorganized person, careless, forgetful, a klutz.  Sometimes when I see commercials for one of those shows on hoarding I shudder and hope to God that I don't end up like that, especially since I harbor some of the same characteristics that hoarders exhibit.

It's easy to poke holes at the materialistic nature of the American culture, how as Americans we place so much value on things on stuff.  In the end, where does it all end up?  In a dump site, or dissolved into the earth, or maybe into a museum.  Most religions claim that we take nothing with us to the afterlife.  But stuff can make life better, easier, more comfortable.  No, buying more stuff won't make me happy, happiness can't be bought outright, but it can sometimes make acquisition of happiness a less complicated process.