Stuff

You need to clean up your stuff. Yes, you, who just left that pile of books on the floor of a bookstore. And you, who decided that a retail shelf was the best place to leave your coffee cup. And definitely you, whose wrappers and cigarettes and unidentifiable discarded belongings found their way onto the sidewalk where you so unceremoniously abandoned possession of them.

We live in a cultural pigsty of STUFF. Stuff that holds low value, combined with people who value themselves so highly they can't be bothered to pick up after themselves leaves us with a constant, unedited, overwhelming mess. As someone who has and does work in retail, I'm tired of picking it up. The little specific instances I spend so much time putting away is endemic of a culture that puts no real value on the quality of an item. A mass produced, bargain bin, two for one sale culture where it doesn't matter if you leave that shirt on the ground, you can buy three more in five minutes and do the same to them. The constant churning out of low quality stuff teaches us how to treat things, and the desperate beggar mentality of retail allows people to act out that compulsion of disrespect because they are constantly cleaned up after like an unwell child. (Actually, I was taught better than that when I was a child.) *

The way we treat our things is encouraged by two ostensible major mindsets. First, there are the sections of people who have money to spend and want people to know it. They have cash, and no idea what they are spending it on. Is the word luxury in the title? Yes please. A designer label? They'll take two. Even though there is a lot of money being spent, no one has the class or respect to actually care or consider what they are buying. A classic example? This bag.

It's Louis Vuitton. It's a celebrity coup. It's 42,000. And it's incredibly ugly. Accumulation of stuff as status with no thought.

The second group is one that runs from the common deal finders and bulk buyers to the more extreme hoarders. No one seems to choose just one thing when they can get a second for free-even if they have absolutely no need for that thing. The triumph of stuff rises as the respect with which we treat our possessions falls. The easier it is to find, the more likely we are to have it, accumulate it, destroy it, and buy it again.

Now, I'm not saying that stuff isn't important. "Things" are part of all of our lives, and that’s fine. Maybe it is some kind of spiritual accomplishment to be prepared to renounce all our worldly possessions at a moments notice, but I'm not ready to hang my hat on that peg yet. The reality is that stuff can be good-it connects us, amuses us, holds inspirations and memories. Stuff is tools, aids, creations, monuments. Stuff is not experience, or relationships, but it can mold the rest of our lives between those other things. I just wish we, as a culture, could exercise some critical thought towards our stuff and the stuff we need, and the value we place on it against and over other things. If we understand and work to attain the stuff we have, appreciate its value, then hopefully we will learn to treat our things better and just live better all around.

So clean up your toys, or you won't be allowed to play with them anymore.



*Maybe if we better learned the ideas of respect and responsibility there would be more progress from a government and a company in a certain environmental crisis. But that’s a whole other post.