Stuff

People love stuff. It's more than a simple leaning, getting more stuff because we can afford it, it's a part of our being, it is what makes us who we are as a species.

Most of us control our need for more stuff, some of us don't. It's an obsession we all have, it's the root of most of the other obsessions, gambling, alcohol, drugs, sex, it's all about getting more. It's the first sign someone is losing control, they have too much of something. Too many cats, too many books, too many women, too many men, too many drinks, too much stuff.

I've worked on a bookmobile for the library. The kids at each stop would march on and each was allowed two books. Some took great care in picking them out, but even those who didn't were happy and excited about the prospect of getting some free stuff. And they didn't even know what money is about. It wasn't that they get to read, you have to force most kids to read, it was free stuff.

When you're downtown and you see the homeless people and the nearly homeless, they have a lot of stuff. They have it with them. Some of that is practical, when you see a guy in August and it's ninety degrees out and he has his winter coat under his arm, this is a guy who is planning ahead. He isn't expecting a change in lifestyle in the next six months, but that doesn't explain the shopping cart full of stuff. Or sometimes it's bags. Lots of bags, plastic bags, paper bags, canvas bags, backpacks, luggage. It's nice to see that the modern wheeled luggage with the extendable handle you see so much in airports has trickled down to the homeless. Reaganomics. They lack a storage facility, i.e. a house, but they want their stuff.

The first sign that a person is missing a fencepost is that they have too much stuff. And I'm not just talking about the crazy street person here, watch the folks on their way to work. Half the people you see are carrying several bags. Now they may be nicer bags, but they're carrying for more bags than makes sense. A woman has her purse of course, that's been the case for a long time, but now so do a lot of the men. They don't call it that, and they look a little different, but come on, it's a purse. And I'm not talking about the briefcase either, they have that too. So that's two bags. But these days that's apparently not enough. You've got to have a big bag hanging on your shoulder, and maybe a backpack as well. And maybe a couple in your hands. Lunch bags, a box of files you took home to work on, whatever. Now everyone of both sexes has three, four, five or even more bags they're toting to work every day. Every day. They look like well dressed homeless and I think there's a connection.

Let's talk about SUVs. When you ask most people that have one, the response you get is that they have kids and they need the room for their stuff. How did people get along before the SUV? Not everybody even had a station wagon and they didn't seem to have a problem with even large families.

I believe that people often buy cars to be what they are not. Middle aged fat guys buy sporty cars because they aren't, cube farm guys buy pickups to pretend that they work for a living. It allows you to live a little bit of a fantasy.

By the way, just as a side note, have you noticed how many people that drive completely "me first" cars have "kids first plates"?

But back to my point. If you look, there are an awful lot of short guys, wimpy guys, and women who are driving these enormous cars, or trucks or whatever they are. I can see the desire to be seen as athletic and powerful when you aren't, but these things have gotten so big, it makes me think that these people want to be fat. That's a lot of money to spend to let everybody know you want to be fat. Just get fat. It isn't hard.

It doesn't make much sense until you go back to the crazy street people toting around all that stuff. There is something in our evolution that made us hoarders down at the deepest level. And when our brains aren't working quite up to snuff, it's one of the first things to kick in. Or the last hard wired program to give it up. At some point it must have been in our best interest to be acquisitive. A survival technique I guess. Saving your nuts and berries for a rainy day. So we do it. Even when it's pouring out.