Friday 14 September 2007

Hoarders of the World, Unite!-----Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings calls out for Collector Personality.

Does a collector have any kind of different personality? Can anyone make out if a certain person is collector or not? We all have collector personality. As human beings, we tend to hoard things. In no other species, you will find this tendency unless it concerns food, which does not count.

What do we collect? I should ask what we do not collect? As kids, we start with toys, pencils, crayons and slowly graduate to coins, stamps, playing cards, music albums, and books. (A few are even known to collect weird things. I will not get into that!!) The collection of these/or other things might continue into adulthood. Why do we collect things? There are wide and varied reasons for that. These give us a sense of comfort, or take us back to childhood or may be such a hobby, which might be lucrative. People have been known to make a fortune out of old coins, stamps, paintings, books etc.

What is it we actually collect without realizing it? Dreams, hopes, memories. Dreams are what make us going, giving our best. Some of our dreams are fulfilled too. Without hope, we cannot achieve any kind of goal. Hope keeps our dreams alive, fuelling our desires, wants and needs.

A whole life is built on collection of memories. These keep us grounded, taking us to places, which otherwise we would forget. Good memories fade away and bad ones have a tendency to stay for longer time. It is the human tendency to exaggerate the unpleasant ones. To project those to beyond what really took place. Some memories fester and release poison into our minds. Some people tend to fan those acerbic and vitriolic thoughts feeling comfortable with the pessimism. Collection of these appalling memoirs is most dangerous of all. These tend to spread beyond the mind of that concerned person filling the surroundings with what we call negative vibes.

Collecting anything should be in a balanced manner, be it mundane things or dreams, hopes and memories.

Check out more collectors...

35 comments:

  1. You always put things so well and in a manner which can be understood by even the less educated people like myself!

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  2. steve, what is it about less educated? Your stories show a great maginative mind.

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  3. I worried for years that my collections made me some kind of compulsive. Like I HAD to have this or that...so I purged it all, I now collect nothing. But memories, oh, that is something I hope I never lose. The most precious collection of them all. Right?
    xo
    Blue

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  4. i wonder sometimes what my collections say about me .... from the normal "magnets" and "shot glasses" to the more obscure frogs and abba collectables that line my cupboards !!!

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  5. I agree with this: "Collecting anything should be in a balanced manner, be it mundane things or dreams, hopes and memories."

    But sometimes it is hard to do so :)

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  6. Dreams, hopes, memories - would it be interesting if we collected them by writing them ALL down and storing them somewhere. I guess in a way us journalers do. Great post.

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  7. Lovely. Life truly is a collection of memories.

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  8. Excellent post on "Collector Personality" prompt. You expounded it so well. A lot of insights here :)

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  9. Hoarders of the world unite...lol good title. I never thought about collecting memories, that's a good one.

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  10. Interesting post! I agree to this..."Good memories fade away and bad ones have a tendency to stay for longer time."
    I suppose the bad ones lingers longer as it etches deeper than the good memories. It's also harder to let go.

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  11. Hmmm, yes ... the psychology behind it. Why does one collect?

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  12. Very nice insights, we can collect so many things. I have seen people hoard more food than they could ever eat in reaction to earlier experiences of having nothing. Even as food goes bad they buy more, their over-compensating out of control.

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  13. Some memories fester and release poison into our minds.

    and it is those memories i seek most to flush out and wash away....

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  14. I love the insight here - we do all indeed collect memories, and choosing which ones to treasure is the key.

    Great post!

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  15. I wonder how much clinging to our past inhibits us from moving forward. I have family members who continue to live in the past, mourning the passing of relatives to such an extreme they are no longer living in the present.

    Very interesting read, as always.

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  16. gautami,

    another article
    about collecting things

    i have about 150 of these now!

    /t.

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  17. Very thoughtful post. You're right, I do have a collection of memories. I am surprisingly often able to keep the good ones front and center and the bad ones fading to black. I'm hoping it continues that way.

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  18. I like your post very much...!

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  19. Nice post! I know a lady who collects turtles in any form. Everyone gives her turtles for all occasions. Last time I talked to her, she's up to her neck in turtles and wishing she'd never mentioned her collection to anyone. I'm still laughing.

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  20. Excellent Seunday Scribbling post, Gautami! Yes, definitely, all things are best in moderation. Obsession of anykind creates problems. Great insight!

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  21. I love your point about how we collect dreams throughout our lives, and how this is such a crucial part of being human.

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  22. Yes I'm an esoteric immaterial collector. That struck a chord!

    Jenn

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  23. collecting memories - so true
    but i enjoy re-reading them
    (as i enjoyed reading this)
    thank you

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  24. And friends - the best collection of all! Lovely post about the different things we collect in the space of a lifetime.

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  25. As a matter of course, I am a contrary sort. Whenever I see the statement of only spiecies, I get up about it.
    Oh, not in a "mad" way. More of a local information sharing way.

    For example, in a set of dvds that I rented throuh netflix there was a documentary about birds.
    Richard Attenborough narrated it, well done.
    Of the birds in New Zealand, there is a male bird that collects things and stacks them in a little "museum" that he built.
    Bug wings of a specific bug, and they must be pretty...
    berries from a specific bush,
    stones, seeds, leaves, twigs, and an assortment of various articles that absolutely amaze you. (or at least, amazed me)
    And these are NOT for eating. Not even the berries or seeds, but rather, they are for stacking in little piles, going out and coaxing a female bird back and escort her through the collection to see if he is THE one.
    Really, my explaination is quite failing here. Rent the movie or go to your local library to see it... it's well worth the trouble.

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  26. Loved this post. I am a reluctant collector sometimes.

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  27. I think it's remembering and creating our storehouse of individual as well as collective memories that makes us most distinctly human.

    I loved this post.

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  28. What a wonderful post...I loved how you talked about collecting memories. I had never thought about it in that context, but it's so true!

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  29. Ah, but what do you collect? Not confessing?

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  30. Yes, the collection of memories. As I let go of things in preparation of my move, the ones hardest to let go of (some of which I kept!) were the ones that were given to me by or reminded me of a person or event. It is preserved much more deeply in the object than in the photograph or journal entry. The interesting thing I found was that there was a point that some items in that category no longer had the same hold on me, and were able to be discarded without a thought or tug at my heartstrings. Thanks for the thoughts, and hello from Michele's!

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  31. I never thought of myself as much of a collector, but I do love my collection of memories.
    So many good memories came to mind after I read your post.
    hank you.
    Namaste

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  32. I love collecting memories. Especially in photographic form. I have so many pictures and photoalbums, and I love them all.

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  33. I hv a very precious cellular album..its my memory.

    Keshi.

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  34. succinct, thoughtful and very well put!

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  35. Beautiful look at collections. Memories take up no space like the crayons, stones and pebbles, shells and oddments of life that end up being more clutter than respite from the tiresome demands of life in general ... hadn't really thought of memories and dreams as things we collect -- but they ARE things we cherish, aren't they?

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