On What We Collect

Not to be confused with pack-ratting...but have you ever noticed what people collect?  Like vintage fountain pens, maple-tree sap spiles, golf balls, thimbles, spoons, teacup sets, porcelain plates, Lladró figurines, long-play records, etc.

In my past life, our house was full of collectibles.  Two of us lived in enough space for an army (compared to where I live very cozily now) and had almost every nook and cranny filled with something.  For instance, my ex-partner loved Boyd's resins and, once started, couldn't stop collecting them.  Most of them were 1st editions (a whole substratum of collecting) and filled glass cabinets and shelves on all 3 levels of our house.  She also collected baseball caps everywhere we went around the world, hanging them at the ceiling all around our basement.  Together we collected the 50 State Quarter spoons issued over 10 years.  And on and on it went....for a rainy day, for my grandson, for whatever.

My daughter once exclaimed, if ever you have to move, please do NOT ask me to help you!  HA!  So I didn't.  It was exactly a year ago when I was almost totally finished with packing or selling all our collections as we broke house and I prepared for my move to The Netherlands.  I never expected that day to come and therefore never took seriously the implications of all we were collecting.  However, in the end, it all had its place...and good fortune....

Since I was the retired one, I was the one who packed things up for my Ex...close to 1,000 Boyds that had to be repacked into their original boxes (the "more value!" substratum), baseball caps carefully cupped into each other for transport, etc.  When I started the entire project, I perished the thought.  But in the actual process of doing it, I saw satisfying progress every day.

It was another story for me because most of what was mine I was not going to take with me.  Simple.  Not enough room.  But this is where the good fortune comes in:  eBay and Amazon became my best friends, helping me get rid of everything, often at a good price.  I had a personal collection of uncanceled sheets of every USA stamp since the 1940s...hundreds of them in albums.  One by one I scanned and listed them on eBay and one by one they sold, sometimes at $25/sheet.  Old books, DVDs, Quarter spoons, spiles, concert T-shirts, you name it...to the tune of over $15K by the time all was said and done.

My treasure became someone else's treasure.  And no, it did not bother me one whit.  If anything, it seemed planned before the foundation of the world for such a day, since I needed the money for my move.

Now, do I still collect today, you ask?  You can bet your bottom dollar, yes.  BUT I've learned my lesson:  KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).  Or maybe that's keep it SMALL.  I brought all my pinched/elongated pennies with me and all my official coin medals from around the world.  Simple and small.  Easily transported from here to there.

Which brings me to the above weathervane in Wageningen, Netherlands (in case you were wondering!).  What I collect now is here on my laptop or external hard drive where I have categories:  windmills, water towers, clock towers, weathervanes, spires.  I can't NOT collect them.  They've become part of what I look for and find soulful...each with its own name or character.  Each without a pricetag, free for the taking.  And small.

And you?  What do you collect?  Surely you knew I'd ask! 

Always Look Up

By the end of this, some of you will be rolling your eyes, I guarantee it.  So up front I'm telling you this is the god-honest truth.

Right now we're in the middle of Mercury Retrograde when electronic gadgets (like computers!) go haywire, transportation 'snarls' more than usual, and, to put it bluntly, we all do more stupid things than normal.  It happens 3-4 times a year for 3 weeks at a time.  This stint is from August 20 - September 12.

Please hold that thought.

The older I get, the more I want to find out about my heritage.  Does knowing where I come from help me know where I'm going?  I have no idea.  But take my two grandpas, for instance, both of whom I never met....

Dad's dad, Thomas, was born in 1847 and served in the U.S. Civil War.  He was 70 when Dad was born in 1917.  Dad was 78 when he died in 1995.  So if you do the math, my grandpa served in the Civil War as a teenager...while his own son, my dad, served in no wars because he was a preacher and was thereby exempt.  What was Thomas like, I wonder, and how did that war affect him, Dad...or me?

Mom's dad, Sidney, was born in 1892 and so happened to be one of America's prominent astrologers in his day.  He published under the pen name Wynn and "began Wynn's Astrology Magazine in 1931, and for the next two decades it was one of the most influential in the emerging field. He also contributed a column to the New York Daily News and wrote a number of popular books."

What I knew about my astrology grandpa while growing up in my conservative preacher's home was that I shouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole.  I even felt guilty about reading the horoscope, so I didn't.  But when Bill and I divorced in 1990, I suddenly needed to find out why I wasn't supposed to 'touch' astrology?  Would it kill me or my faith?

Since I had already fallen from grace (my last post), I decided there was nothing left to kill, so with a passion I touch-tackled astrology in every way possible.  A lady at work aided my intrigue and put me in touch with a guru of sorts who taught me much.  I purchased top-of-the-line software to work up natal charts and personality reports, which I continue doing to this day with great pleasure.  One of the things I learned along the way is you can get an astrology quack every bit as dreadful as a Bible interpreter quack.  I began to see my life making connections to my past in ways I never thought possible.  Kinda like criss-crossing grandpas.

Now go back to Mercury Retrograde.  I once tried to jokingly explain to do-not-touch-astrology Dad what MR was and he immediately said, "Oh, you mean like when I drove the car from Virginia to Michigan with my glasses caught in the corner of the luggage rack on top of the car...and I couldn't figure out where I had put them till I got home?!"  Yup!

Okay then.  One more week of this madness and all you need to do is pay attention.  Expect delays and try not to take glitches personally.  Before you know it, life will move into the fast lane and become normal again.

"As in the heavens above, so on earth below."   That's why you should always look up!

Are you rolling your eyes?  But I bet you believe in the effects of the full moon, right!  Now that reminds me of when I worked in assisted living....