If you consider yourself a collector, have you ever taken a step back and asked yourself…’why do I collect things?’
It’s one of those questions that I’m always kind of intrigued by. I want to know the answer, but I don’t. Or, maybe I do. Maybe I don’t.
I struggle a lot with the idea of collecting things…mostly because it sometimes feels like a sickness, or an addiction. It’s OD. I have friends that hold similar positions. I have friends that have no position. I have friends that think I’m crazy, friends that think it’s great, friends that wish they had something to be interested in (or obsessed by).
It used to happen more often, before I became a parent and when I was more into the ‘socializing’ of my 20’s and 30’s, but people used to say stuff like ‘that’s so cool that you’re so passionate about sneakers’ and I would cringe whenever I heard that word. ‘Passionate.’ About sneakers? Gross. I can understand being ‘passionate’ about helping people, but ‘passionate’ about a consumer good? Yeah, no thanks.
I once confided in a friend - ‘I feel like an ass for owning so much crap’ and he said ‘If you’re not hurting anybody who cares?’ And that’s something that I fall back on from time to time.
It started out with GI Joes, baseball cards, comic books, CDs, then shoes…and I’ve been on the shoes kick for 20+ years now (with no signs of slowing down)…my life, though, has somewhat been defined by my desire to collect…it’s so weird and I think I know what it is, but I’m not really sure I do…
But have you ever stopped to wonder why YOU collect what it is that you collect?