When was the last time that you went through your stuff. For some that means cleaning out the closet and getting rid of all the stuff that you haven’t worn in a certain amount of time. My daughter will advise anyone that will listen if you don’t wear something for 6 months you need to get rid of it. For some that is already scary because they keep stuff just in case they might need it someday. I know of a woman in Pittsburgh that cleaned out her closet twice a year so she could go shopping for new stuff. Her closet was so full that she didn’t have anywhere to store her stuff.

   Psychologist Paul Pearsall when writing about people like the woman above says, “you may require a closet exorcist. A trusted friend can help prevent the re-stuffing phenomenon. Re-stuff happens when in the process of cleaning out closets and drawers, we are stimulated to acquire new stuff. Beware of the stuff co-addicts…”

   Maybe you have seen the commercial on TV where the people are totally disappointed because the electronic device that they purchased yesterday isn’t the latest and greatest, so they have to go out and get the latest. They are telling you that yesterday’s stuff isn’t good anymore and you need more stuff. Their message is getting through to us, because we love our stuff. We compare our stuff with the stuff of those around us and we judge which stuff is the best stuff. The late George Carlin, had a whole routine about stuff. He use to say that most houses were composed of piles of our stuff with a roof over it. As we get more stuff, we need to move to a bigger house so we can pile more stuff under a larger roof. To some extent he hit the nail on the head. Today there are over 30,000 self-storage companies that offer over a billion square feet of nothing but storage room. We spend over $12 billion a year just to store our stuff somewhere. That means that storage is bigger than the music industry in our country. Not bad for something that didn’t exist until the 1970s.

   We have people that are so good at collecting stuff that we now pay to go look at the stuff they had while they were alive. When we were last in Tennessee, we toured the stuff of Sargent York of World War 1 fame. We walked through the house that our government built, saw the kitchen where his meals were cooked and even saw the bed where he died. If you go to California, you can tour the Hearst Castle and see all of the 3,000 year old statues and works of art that he collected while he was alive. He had 72,000 square feet to store his stuff in and then there is the Hearst barn which gave him a little more space to store his stuff.

   When it comes to people that had a lot of stuff in the Bible, Solomon had the most stuff. That’s why I find what he wrote so interesting, “ I have also learned why people work so hard to succeed: it is because they envy the things their neighbors have. But it is useless. It is like chasing the wind. They say that we would be fools to fold our hands and let ourselves starve to death. Maybe so, but it is better to have only a little, with peace of mind, than be busy all the time with both hands, trying to catch the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4:4-6)

   People who invest in stuff are really busy, because you can never arrive at a time when you have enough stuff, the latest stuff, the stuff that is in style or the stuff that is popular right now. Solomon challenges the whole thought process that says you need stuff to exist with the phrase “they say it would be foolish to fold our hands and let ourselves starve to death.” In our everyday language the people say you have to have this stuff or you don’t have a good life. Solomon in his wisdom says, maybe, but I really think it might be better to have less stuff and have peace of mind than to keep working, always busy doing with both hands trying to get enough stuff.

   Next week we will take a deeper look at “stuff”.

Love,
Mike