Today’s Covid project was a sweep and purge of our overstuffed garage and a meditation on collecting became inevitable as we rifled through boxes of plastic silverware, Christmas decorations and amassed trinkets. Exploring the idea began with a consideration of motivation and proceeded to a thought or two about what satisfactions a collector seeks. One powerful motive is the search for prestige…I have more and better that anyone else. One thinks of the libraries of Jefferson, Pepys and a host of others. The ability to say that ones acquirings are definitive in their scope is heady stuff. Fame is in the offing if you simply have MORE.
Others collect as an investment. I am often asked what my signed baseballs are worth. Possessors of original Guttenburg items have certainly acquired wealth. The melomaniac is buried in stacks of LPs, cds and sheet music that represent potential wealth and distinction. These are the folks that store memories against a rainy day that may-or may not-ensue.
There are collectors of experiences like the gallivanter who has a collection of small bottles filled with soils from far flung sites. A certain fame is built in to the traveller’s collection, one can safely say that he or she as been to more places than many of their fellows.
There are collectors that are simply expressing themselves…they have eclectic troves that may include concert posters, anime or bottle caps. The resulting hoard is full of seemingly unrelated items that are essential to the collector. Relatives of the eclectic acquirers are the spiritual gatherers. This is where we find the Buddhist who has dedicated himself to non-attachment but has a staggering number of Buddha statues.
Let’s not forget the compilers. These are the folks who love to arrange and re-arrange. These folks often collect art or books and then devise various shelving or display systems that change regularly. They often wonder if they should organize by type, size, period or color. Melvil Dewey is a hero in this group.
My favorite type of collector is the one who indulges in what theorists call “luxury consumption.” They buy Picassos, illuminated manuscripts from the twelfth century or Fabrege Eggs because they CAN…and that’s all you need to know.
As I piled through the chaos of my garage it became clear to me that I have been all of these types in my lifetime. Is it possible that we are all merely gleaners in the rich fields of life?
I better cut this short…I have a lot of garbage to dispose of.
Olio Folio 
James –
We’ve taken a lot of things out of the house in the last few weeks – some to Goodwill, some to the recycling bin, and some to the dumpster at the shop where they should have gone in the first place. Some of the items could be described as durable goods (like the rifle barrel my brother left here) and some would revert to slurry if they got the least bit wet. All are ephemeral -entropy can only be slowed, after all. I won’t miss any of it. But both entropy and the abhorrence of a vacuum are natural, and the urge to fill the voids in the stamp album are just that – urgent. My fascination is nothing short of a binding, a strapping together with the axe of authority as if it’s an option NOT to fill the blank space. People who don’t collect anything can be forgiven for not “getting it”.
LikeLike
Well put Don !!
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike