Rosneathian
1471
Hello, fellow traveller and comrade. I genuinely appreciate your thoughts, as well as the many others over the last three months. These have been truly heartening exchanges. Thank you, too.
Nov 16, 2022,15:50 PM
Let me try and reflect on what you've said. If you'll allow me I'll do so by elaborating my own perspective.
First, like you, I'm a collector of things of a similar "certain age." I've always collected. First comics, then vinyl records, then books (ongoing), then artwork and most recently watches. I've basically collected what I can, when I can. I am human therefore I collect
Second, I have a bloody-minded streak. Whenever circumstances required, I've always moved on. Whether by choice or by circumstance - or a combination of the two - I let go. It might seem drastic but it's also quite normal and usually necessary too. In the natural world, some animals moult fur to be season-ready or shed skin to grow. Sure, we're not polar bears or snakes. As human beings we like to collect and surround ourselves with things as extensions of ourselves. There are 10,000 year-old burial sites containing human remains and collected artefacts all of which presumably possessed symbolic meaning. But what happens when these extensions of ourselves no longer work? Dependency makes it hard to let go of habit even when it's clear that the way forward requires adjustment, and requires less not more.
Third, I don't think decision-making has much to do with bravery or courage or whatever. It has more to do with honesty and clarity of purpose. It begins with listening to that little voice. We all know it: the one that mumbles something about things not feeling quite right. It continues with reflecting on that that could mean (a process best not hurried). Then, if there's an external stimulus that makes one change one's priorities, great. The decision becomes much easier to take. In my case it became clear over this summer that it was time to listen to that voice and act.
Fourth, decisions like this are also aesthetic choices. Aesthetic choices don't mean having a Romain Gauthier or a Kari Voutilainen instead of a Rolex or a Seiko. It means trying to achieve an aesthetic alignment between one's material life with what feels right. It's about fixing one's external self to help achieve inner harmony. It's about finding balance.
I still love my comics, vinyls, libraries lost and rebuilt, artwork and watches. It's only of secondary importance that I don't possess all of them any more. Because I love it all, there's no regret, ever. In fact, I find regret to be a completely wasteful indulgence. The arc of life incorporates past, present and future. They're not sequential. They're simultaneous. We construct all three all of the time. I own my past, and in my past there were some cool comics, for instance. What's to regret? Nothing.
My hunch is that when you're ready you'll have no problem taking the decision that are right for you. It might take an external prompt, but one day you'll wake up and it'll all feel super clear. That moment won't have appeared out of nowhere; it'll be the result of a lengthy process of conscious thought and subconscious processes. When it happens, we trust what we must do next.