What Stuff Means

To many of you that are older than me (which is most of my friends in NYC) I am going to sound like a youngin' right now- but this weekend I finally moved all of my stuff out of my dad's house. Being in a small city apartment I never had the space for everything but I felt as if this 'coming of age' was long over due. Giving myself 1 hour- I was forced to make split decisions on everything I owned- asking myself as I tossed each item, "Have I used this in the past year? Can someone use this more than more?" Toss, done and done. At the time it felt great- as I packed up the car of bags for the Goodwill I started to realize that in essence, I was throwing my childhood away. Not literally, but- all of the stuff that I don't use on a daily basis but kept for pure emotional attachment- was gone. As I dropped the bags off and drove away, I felt very free. Free because someone who needed this stuff would have much more use for it than I did. But I got to thinking on my drive back into the city with what seemed like my whole childhood past packed into 3 large boxes- why is it that we attach emotions to inanimate objects? If all of this 'stuff' is so easily purchased, used, and transferable to another person- why does it seem like we are giving the memories away with them once they are no longer our possessions? In reality, it seems as though we should be associating memories with the people we made them with. The friends and family, the laughs, the experiences themselves. When my Zippy car and I finally made it back to the big apple I decided to do some digging. The next night, I took the time to go through all of my belongs that had survived by brutal 'American Idol' status judgement and realized that I had all the stuff I needed with me. It was nice to be able to look through old picture albums, cards, and sports clothes. But as I pushed the boxs of stuff under my bed (to be opened, I don't when again) I felt good about what I had done. Looking at the pictures I was able to see that the memories I had built in the past 23 years in my life were not about all the old stuff, but about how I felt with the people in those pictures. And it made me excited to make new memories and build upon my already wonderful collection. Spring cleaning in mid-winter? I think yes...certainly does the soul some good :)
xoxo AA