What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
Some people place a lot of importance on possessions, and others carry no attachment to material things at all. For a long time, I always thought I was one of those people who cared too much about possessions, though my own personal definition of possessions is items of sentimental value, which are attached to memories, not assets I could sell for financial gain.
I am a collector, though certain members of my family would refer to me as a hoarder, someone who keeps everything just in case they might need it one day. It’s true to say I do, do that.
As a child, I remember my grandparents had an outhouse, and in this outhouse, there was lots of string. As a young child it fascinated me as to why there was drawers full of string, buttons, pipe cleaners, brown paper bags, elastic bands, washers, pieces of cardboard and various other household/garden items, that to me appeared to be of no particular use. However, all these items did have a purpose, and if ever something needed fixing or securing in the house or garden, they always had the tools or supplies to be able to fix things.
Unconsciously, I carried this logic and adapted it into my own practices. I too do not throw string away, and I keep plastic carrier bags, extra screws from DIY projects, and spare pieces of paper and card that could be used to write on or for a craft project. None of these, though, have any sentimental attachment. However, each time I catch myself saving any of these items, I fondly think of my grandparents and reminisce.
My earliest memories as a child of collecting possessions were books. As a kid, I loved to read and just loved receiving new books. By the time I was 7, I was football obsessed, and I started to collect football magazines, cards, and stickers. A popular pastime in the 1970’s and one that is still around today, was buying packets of football stickers/cards and taking them to school to swap with your friends, or anyone else who was collecting them. I remember arriving at school where I was often bombarded by boys waiting for me uttering the magic words, ‘have you got any swaps?’.
During school time, we kept our football stickers in our tray, and I recall the time I came back from afternoon recess to find my stickers were missing. Someone had stolen them, and I was devastated. My trust in people kind of ended then and there because it was pretty obvious that someone in my class had taken them, and they were able to deceive both me and the teacher. Whoever took the stickers kept quiet and kept the stickers to themselves as they never did resurface. To this day, I do not know who took them, though I had my suspicions at the time. I hated that feeling of someone taking something from me that I cared about.
For the first eleven years of my life, I was an only child and therefore spoilt by all my relatives with toys, books, games, etc. Periodically, mum and I would sort my toybox out when there was too much stuff, and she would always want to get rid of items that I was not playing with. I hated it when we did this to begin with, and I never wanted to part with anything, though as I got older and realised that getting rid of the old toys made more room for new toys, I became a little more willing to let unused toys go. I was not impressed though on the occasions when I found out she had been throwing stuff away out of my toybox without my permission. My trust in her then decreased, too.
Once I was old enough to make my own purchases without the need for dragging my parents off to the shops with me, I bought magazines, and records, pop memorabilia, and eventually clothes. Clothes I never really had any attachment to unless they were music related t-shirts. However, the magazines and music memorabilia I kept forever and still have most of it today.
As a young adult, I used to display as many of my prized possessions as I could. Walls in the house were adorned with photographs I had taken of pop stars at concerts I had been to. I would frame all the photographs and autographs of the famous people I had met from sports, music, and TV, and my vinyl and CD collection just took over the entire front room eventually. Having my belongings around me and permanently on show always made me feel good. They were constant reminders of experiences and the things in life that made me happy.
As I got older, much of my music memorabilia became packed into boxes and never really saw the light of day again, as family photographs and travel memorabilia replaced the music memories. I even started to sell bits of my collection on Ebay eventually.
Possessions to me are life memories and whilst I do have multiple boxes of items that I would not like to lose or be destroyed, but if they were, all the most important memories are backed up digitally. Every single photograph I have taken, movies I have made, all my music, and written work will stay with me forever, and it will be accessible to my family long after I’m gone. Material possessions no longer carry any value to me anymore. The greatest possessions in my life are of the memories I have made. There are no items of value or sentimentality that can ever replace the people I have shared my life with, and whilst I am still of sound mind, I still have all of those memories. I believe memories are our greatest possessions.
Thanks for reading.
Caz
Hope, Spirit and Freedom 