The Stuff of Materialism

The Stuff of Materialism

“The man does not possess his estate; his estate possesses him.” ~Anonymous

For years after my college and graduate education I found myself in a seemingly never-ending holding pattern in terms of my remunerated work situations. For a period my solution was to once again get more education. I was once told what Ph.D. stood for, “piled higher and deeper”, the humor of which was much more salient after I decided to leave that institution. It didn’t become clear to me until much later on, recently in fact, that I came away from my university years with more than just degrees. I came away with a sense of materialism that was so insidious that I didn’t even see it as such.

Growing up in the family that I did, which perhaps by extension, comes from the culture and subcultures which shaped my family’s values, it just seemed natural to get into my various phases of acquiring material possessions. I had my clothing phase, then my comic book card phase, then the lengthiest phase of all, my book phase. Over the years, my attachments to my stuff began to lose its power over me as a result of reflecting on my current values and goals and the need to move on. I know I had a mixture of sentimental attachments to some of my stuff, as well as an instrumental attachment to some other stuff. When I had to move a number of times in the last few years I realized how easy it was to dispense with materials when convenience was part of the equation due to the energy that would have to be spent to transport the material. I thought I could finally and honestly say I was no longer a materialist, until I pondered the mysteries of the modern day equivalent to “The Lives of the Saints”, reality TV.

I was watching the first four or five episodes of Hoarders: Buried Alive, and found myself experiencing a bit of depressive symptoms considering the psychological, social, and emotional circumstances of these individuals who hoard. I thought to myself, I’m glad I didn’t become a hoarder. Then it dawned on me. I realized that most of the boxes that I have been hauling from home to home over the last few years have contained much of my accumulated materials from my college years, not including the shelves of textbooks I had kept. Whenever an opportunity arose to de-clutter over the years, I somehow managed to convince myself that I would need my Psychology 100 notes on codependency. For the same reason that hoarders keep their rooms and garages full of stuff to give them a sense of security in their possession, I had been holding on to my academic possessions, exclusively because it gave me a sense of security and pride in my academic achievements. I didn’t even realize it until now, what these items signified to me. It’s a puzzling phenomenon since neither my bachelors nor my masters degree are framed or on display anywhere, I never walked at commencement, or had any graduation parties.

In any case, it’s time to clean up and de-clutter, and for me the best way to do it is set up a principle. If it’s not a subject I plan to re-explore in the near future, it needs to go. The same goes for my boxes of religious reading material as well. Because when the zombie apocalypse actually does happen and the shit hits the fan, there are only three things worth taking with me and my family: 1) food, 2) water, 3) weapons… as far as the fruits of my college education, hopefully that will pay off in my problem solving abilities against the zombies.

“The wise man carries his possessions within him.” ~Bias of Priene