Possession #164 - Backpack

Like a suburban pickup truck, this backpack serves more of a symbolic significance than a practical one. It did serve me faithfully through a couple of wilderness canoe trips. But other than those, I've only fantasized about hiking the Appalachian trail or other such treks. I like the idea of surviving on only what I can carry on my back. But in reality, I like my hot shower, my comfortable bed and my gas fireplace. We know the burden of the excesses we accrue, but we have a hard time letting go of them and like the disciples that Jesus once sent out...only taking the clothes on our backs. I keep the backpack in the garage and it's getting a nice aged look to it. But I'd like to fill it up and go somewhere...

Possession #163 - File cabinets

When I was in grad school I had the perfect desk made out of file cabinets with a door laid on top of them. I don't have the door any more, but I still have need of file cabinets. They contain all the records of our life: taxes, house and car payments, bills, warranties, directions for replacing the filter on our vacuum cleaner, birth certificates, addresses, and on and on. Who would think that our lives, quite apart from the businesses where we work, would need so many records? Families could do with a good administrative assistant on staff. Unfortunately, it's just us. At least we have enough space for all the paperwork.

Possession #162 - Coffee Maker

In many homes, this object is elevated to near-shrine status. Perhaps while reading this post you might want to listen to "Java Jive" by the world's greatest musical group. The thing is, I can't really consume caffeine, so this is really used mostly by other members of the family. And when I brew up my de-caf, some would say I'm committing sacrilege. Who would think that an entire culture could grow up around the consuming of this product...I guess it's better than a lot of alternatives. Looking back at world history, we see that a lot of cultures had ritual gatherings centered around the consuming of drugs...I guess we're no different.

Possession #161 - Pooper Scooper

You know that something is off balance in your world when you own a device for scooping up your dog's poop. The infallible font of knowledge that is Wikipedia says that the pooper scooper was invented by Brooke Miller, of Anaheim, California. I don't know what caused Brooke to have the particular moment of enlightenment that led to this invention...but I suspect it involved alcohol. The device has been such a fixture of our society that it's been included in the dictionary since the early 1970's. Despite this handy device, my poop still lies unscooped until they invent a robot to do the actual scooping.

Possession #160 - Junk

Everybody has junk in their house somewhere...some more than others. Junk is stuff that has reached the end of usefulness in the home but hasn't yet moved on to another realm. It's in a sort of stuff-purgatory. Broken coffee makers and vacuum cleaners, rusted tools, worn out brief cases...these things make their way to a half-way station between a prominent location in the home and the junk yard. For some it's harder to part with these old things than others. Some have no problem pitching, tossing and letting go of. Others of us have to let our old stuff age a bit before it gets the boot. We grow attached to things that have been around a long time...and sometimes it's hard to let go.

Possession #159 - Leaf blower

As long as I'm posting my weed whacker, I might as well do the same for my leaf blower. Of all the lawn care products I'm most ashamed of, it is, perhaps, the leaf blower. I imagine a conversation with someone unfamiliar with such a device:

What's that?

A leaf blower.

What does it do?

It...ummm...blows leaves around.

Is it considered a form of recreation?

To the neighbors, yes.

If only we could modify trees to drop their leaves all in a pile and grass to grow only to a certain height, it would spare us all this straitening up of nature. Why does the natural world look more like my son's room in the middle of the summer than my neatly folded shirt drawer? Could it be that messy is the intended order of the world? Why all this tidying up then?

Possession #158 - Weed Whacker

There no chore that doesn't offer an opportunity to find a new tool to accomplish it. This couldn't be truer than in the realm of yard work. I have a lawn mower, leaf blower, snow blower, hedge trimmer,wheel barrow, shovels, rakes, trowels, brooms, a weed whacker (certainly, the best-named tool of the bunch), and of course a garage to put them all in...along with a car if it fits.

I wonder if all these time saving devices actually save time or do they just end up complicating things. They seem to produce an endless supply of problems...parts that need replacing...things that need unclogged, cleaned out or tuned up. It isn't exactly like watching grass grow...but it's close.

Possession #157 - Sewing Machine

This is the sewing machine I bought about 30 years ago in order to make my own costumes and sets for birthday party performances. I got very good at sewing anything that didn't really need to fit - such as clown pants which look all the better the worse they look. This machine has certainly hemmed a good many puppet theater curtains and a few tiny costume...though, not without a few silent expletives. How people make actual clothing that fits on a specific sized person is a mystery I will never understand...and for most of us is a lost skill from our grandmothers and great grandmothers. There probably ought to be a law that everyone has to make a certain percentage of the clothing they wear...it might keep all of us a bit more humble...and save our economy.

Possession #156 - Toilet Paper

Of course it was the Chinese way back in the 6th century or something who first started using something like toilet paper. It only took us Europeans another 1000 years or so to come with something so brilliant. I think of myself as something of a toilet paper snob. It can't be plain ol' Charmin. Not extra strong Charmin. But, the Charmin Ultra for me. As a long-time sufferer of gastro-intestinal distress, I consider a proper roll of toilet paper more essential than toothpaste, hair gel and even coffee.

Proper functioning personal plumbing is essential to health and well-being...and toilet paper is a part of that entire equation. Well...that's just about enough of that, don't you think? I...uhhh... gotta go...

Possession #155 - Refrigerator Door

Not the entire refrigerator...just the door. I wonder sometimes how our ancestors communicated with each other without a refrigerator door on which to affix notes. Our door, I choose to think rather typically, is fairly eclectic - some phone numbers, schedules, pictures of family members, a cartoon. All affixed with a detritus of of magnets gleaned from college visits, junk mail, vacations and inherited from generations before. In many ways, the door is one of the most deeply personal corners of the house. It's not intended to appear any certain way for the benefit of guests. It's the open-air equivalent of the junk door...and it's precisely these kinds of things that say who we are much more than the coffee table which we got because it matches the couch which, in turn, resembles the light switch covers. These things say who we are. I'm always nervous when I go to a house with a refrigerator door that looks too clean.

Possession #154 - Spinning Top

This is another spinning top from my collection. This one, from the king of toy shops - FAO Schwartz. Founded in 1862, it's the oldest toy store in America. My only sadness in all this is the FAO Schwartz is now owned by the Toys R Us corporation... I'm wondering why it is that I like to purchase something which I consider handmade form a family-owned company than something that came off an assembly line from a big corporation? I suppose, most of the time, we're fooling ourselves when we think we're getting something tied more closely to the people who made it. Something like 90% of the things which we own traveled in a shipping container on a big boat across the ocean somewhere. I'm not quite sure this is the sign of a civilized world.