Collections
There's something satisfying about a collection.
There are many things that accumulate and collect throughout a life. It's often said a human is the sum of their experiences. We go through life collecting various feelings and memories, friends and acquaintances, thoughts and ideas. Collections are fundamental to existence. Without things having the ability to collect everything would be an indiscriminate pile of nothingness.
Inside everyone is some desire to collect something. It could be something a little less material in the form of knowledge, experience, or power, or it could be something more material in the form of money or possessions. It's hard wired into us. There's something impressive about a good collection whether meticulously maintained or carelessly cluttered. Somewhere out there is a collection for everyone.
One of the favorite hobbies of people around the world is collecting things, but rarely do folks seem to consider the aftermath of collections. It's remarkable how little regard someone can have for someone else's prized collection. When a loved one dies and folks discover their sacred assortments it's very common for people to go "Jeez, look at all this junk!" How quickly someone's passions can become someone else's headache.
Sometimes for some collections the value is obvious. Naturally it might behoove someone to comb through a collection of jewelry or a selection of numismatic curios, but the value is less obvious in targeted memorabilia or a dusty stack of books. Even when things are known to be valuable it's often easier to just try and get rid of these objects in the quickest way fashionable.
There's not anything inherently wrong with having a collection. Diving head first into a hobby or discipline and acquiring tools of the trade is quite compelling. These objects and things have the ability to connect people with themselves and with others. Solace can be found in communities of people with similar predilections. Memories and associations develop with each acquisition which have attached with them the baggage of life.
Who could forget that time I was in the right place at the right time? How could I forget what that felt like? What about all those early mornings and late afternoons spent engaging with and admiring the thing?
Yet the tricky thing with things is the often pervasive pattern with collecting that it stops mattering how valuable that latest acquisition was. It stops mattering the lengths gone to acquire or the value of it either personally or monetarily. It eventually becomes just another thing. A fact of life. Novelty is a fleeting feeling. An endless cycle ensues where no matter how great the latest thing is the next high is right around the corner.
Even more perverse the mechanisms which compel people to collect are always eager to be exploited. Limited edition is the dirty word of the trade. Rarity is the life blood of the whole endeavor. If you blink too early or too late, if you hesitate on that "Buy It Now" button the opportunity will be missed. The bots and scalpers will beat you to it! We can't allow that to happen can we? Those dirty opportunists are depriving us of the thing. They wouldn't be able to appreciate it the way you could. After all you deserve to treat yourself, right?
Another curious behavior manifests in the hoarder. See, the hoarder already has some amount of the thing. What if something happens, though? What if it wears out or breaks? Would you be able to get another one? An alternate form is the one who hoards not for fear of loss or having enough, but to keep others from being able to experience the thing. Having the thing inherently gives them value. They're special because they have it, and others want it. If they were to share or give up any excess quantity of the thing, they would cease to be unique. They would cease to have value.
One of the most interesting collectors is the late stage collector. After acquiring white whale after white whale, the dopamine hit of a each new trinket added to the collection becomes less and less. They begin to wonder why it doesn't feel the same as it used to. Despite the passion they might have for this particular area of interest the lack of dopamine causes them to start looking elsewhere for other things to covet and acquire. And so they seed a different interest, with other different and novel things to acquire. They become a collector of collections themselves.
Self worth and identity are often tied to these collections. People define themselves by the things they collect and the way they engage with them. In some sense you are what you decide to give your attention to. Unfortunately it's easy to start tying this self worth to the act of collecting rather than the subject matter itself. The passion for what made people get into the area of interest is subsumed by the impulse of collecting.
If you fancy yourself a collector it's important to interrogate why you decide to collect and engage with collecting in the way that you do. Collections have the ability to be enriching as much as they have the ability to be destructive. Sometimes a collection is just a collection. Sometimes collecting is also a blind cycle of acquisition chasing a sense of fulfillment.
So, what does your collection look like?