Sunday, April 19, 2009

Collecting

See Meet Me at Mikes for more Words and Pictures about collecting.

collecting

collecting

collecting


I sometimes worry about collecting stuff. I worked in an op shop for a about 18 months, and I used to see people obsessed with their collecting, wasting money and time, following me around the store as I put things on the shelf, snooping into the sorting room when I was preoccupied... sneaking upstairs to the storage space if they could. It certainly creeped me out! Of course working in an op shop meant that I had access to almost anything my heart desired (and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying... big time!), I get a little depressed as a customer these days because I know the bounty is there, but where?!

I also kind of worry that it's the ultimate capitalist/materialist thing to hoard things, to collect, to want them all, especially when there are so many hungry people in the world, and so many more important things going on.

Having said this, I am a weakling. I collect stuff, from Golden Books, to religious parapehnalia, to pretty cups and saucers (especially lonely ones, that have lost their set!), to dictionaries and atlases (I think its fun to look at the territory changes over the years... ), then there are those train tickets that I just can't seem to throw away, and trust me, lots lots more!

Happy Sunday!
B.


2 comments:

pepper said...

is that people rising from their graves? goddamn thats pretty freaky. Your collections sound lovely (who doesn't love golden books?) and those tickets will be handy one day. I've seen people recycle them as brooch or earring holders for markets. I know what you mean about feeling materialistic for hoarding, but I try to think that it's mostly thrifty :)

Rebecca said...

Yer, I agree about the thrifty thing, it's nice to know that you're not creating excess junk by re-using! and that book, with all the creepy people rising up is from a weird book I got at the op shop, about how to interpret your bible, its very American, very 1950s, and very strange, full colour paintings of sooooooo many things... this is judgement day!