I thought of something interesting this morning while indulging in my morning black coffee and began rearranging my life. My youth has had such diverse changes that sometimes I am left to consider things that I not always would. Or perhaps things I have already considered and decided to rethink about in the moment, neglecting that I personally have already come to a conclusion some time ago on the subject that I am considering. I never remember if I have already gone over the things I think of, so sometimes I need to reinvent my thought processes on it. I was thinking as I was moving my things around about how much we as a society put intrinsic value to things and how incredible silly it is. There sat a coin on my table, a rather rare coin just sitting there taunting me with the value it could bring to my life. A chunk of metal that probably exists more times molecularly in the universe than any of the wood on our planet. And yet the man made arrangement of these molecules in such a particular fashion gave it wealth beyond that of a normal coin. This got me thinking as I looked around my living room with somewhat new eyes. All the things around me had value to someone somewhere, but that value was arbitrarily assigned by the individual. We as people give things value, and without us there is no value to an object. A priceless family heirloom is nothing but a heap of molecules that has no meaning to someone outside of that family. We rely heavily on our things, we are materialistic in nature. Being materialistic is often viewed as a bad thing, as the things you have in this life will not follow you into the great beyond; whatever that may be. However, we still collect. We still bring more items home. I was thinking about this because upon moving to be on my own in the world, I have become more utilitarian in nature with the things that I bring into my home. Most have heard of the concept “If it does not spark joy, get rid of it” or something along those lines. I have grown to adopt that. I have ideas for projects, I have things I want to build and make. So something I do hold onto for longer periods of time waiting for that joy to be sparked. After a time, if I have yet to create with the object I will get rid of it. Often donating or selling to someone else before I simply trash it. I find this to be the most practical use of my time and space. It has saved me a lot of headaches, its decluttered the things in my life. Of course I still hold onto something’s regardless of their seen us, but I have come to realize that not all things need to be held onto. Humans seem to be magpie’s; but we all find things shiny in our own ways. Most of my books I am holding onto, but some of them I am getting rid of. Some I am holding onto until I get the hardback copy of simply because I prefer those kinds of books. This is a very materialistic collection that is heavy in weight and in value. However I have deemed it appropriate to collect as the knowledge and stories inside of the books is something I wish to have and pass on to others. They have value to use because we have assigned them value, but they also have knowledge. A coin collection is cool, I will happily collect my different coins but they are not something I will go out of my way to pay for the perfect mint condition for. I think that collectively we want to move away from being materialistic but there’s too many shiny things that peak everyone’s interests. So truly we never will, I think that collecting truly useful things is better than collecting truly useless things. I will happily collect useless things as long as they do not take up space, and I do not have to pay little to nothing for them. Yes I love Blu-ray movies, but no I will not be buying any. If people want easy gifts to give me I will happily tell them what blu-ray I would love to receive. Looking around my apartment, I feel pride that my collections have dwindled in size. It brings me joy that I no longer have as many things as I once did. Partially cause I can move easier and quicker with less things, but partially because most of the excessive things I had I never used. I am going to continue getting rid of things here and there, but there’s suddenly less I need to get rid of. There are something’s I have in storage that I should get rid of, but I am attached to because it is something from my family; however most of it is stuff I could take a picture of. Finally, my last thought for this post is simple; I will begin to scrap book. I didn’t think this would be such a simple solution to my problem, but now I think it is. Yes I have all these things that I have that I will never use sitting in boxes, and I wish to get rid of but they still spark joy. Whatever shall I do? I know! I will take photos of my things, put them in a scrap book and write descriptions for them and all that. But I can also put the events of my life in the scrap book as well and how and where those things existed in my life. I think this solution is elegant; I don’t think keeping all my toys or random things I have come across and collected will do me any good or my lineage any good either so I will simply document it and document the stories of my life at the same time. It’s like making a biography, but more in depth. It’ll save me space and resources after all. Sure it is still a materialistic way of keeping my things as per say, but its an intellectual abstraction of those things. They are removed from the physical world and become mere concepts and memories within the confines of a scrap book rather than wasting away in a dusty attic for years and years. It allows me to reevaluate what things I actually want or need to keep. I know I ramble and wander with my writing, and this might be a confusing conclusion but it is one that I have come to on my own. It is one that I have thought over subconsciously but never really knew how to express. I think of this as an efficient use of my time, space, and money. Hopefully these ideas have helped encourage others to think of that as well.

Thank you for indulging my random thoughts this morning. Wait its not morning…It’s 1:30. Oh well, thank you for indulging me on these “afternoon” thoughts. Please go enjoy more of my writing elsewhere on my website!
-Ben