You can't take it with you.

Off-topic
1

An elderly lady died alone in her house which was packed to the ceiling with stuff she had bought but never used. She had spent her last years shopping instead of living.

I remember there were two or three of these incidents close together. In the course of my job, I once met a customer who lived in poverty and squalour in a house packed to the roof with valuable antiques.

It’s not what you own, it’s what you do with it.

(A laden camel cannot pass through the eye of a needle, although someone who dined at Mr. Rupali’s Curry House last night can.)

2

There was this old black guy named “Father”

I first met him about 20 years ago when I was living on a boat. I was checking out a pile of junk (boat owners have little room and are prone to toss good stuff). He drove up in an overloaded pick up.

Saying, “I am Father, get away from that, it’s mine” , he sorta drove me away from stuff that I really didn’t want anyway, I was just looking so I said nothing.

About 3 years ago, the Father of junk started parking across from my yard in front of the empty field. He was living in an old van full of all kinds of junk. And I mean junk, pieces of wood ( ok, I save those, but I have a yard), bags of clothes, just total crap. He then found a junked trailer (no tags), and worked in the hot sun all afternoon to extend the sides up 6 feet. This was piled high with random stuff in another couple weeks, so he found another trailer. I was nice to him, as he didn’t appear to remember me from our previous meeting, and I sorta felt sorry for the old guy, he had a sorta mental “pack rat” problem I had seen in others.

So code enforcement eventually tags his camp. They bring in garbage and tow trucks plus a mower and Father’s camp is history. Until last year when he came back and did the same thing again. Worked hard in the sun raising a roof on his broken van, for a week. Got more trailers and amazed us with his tireless efforts gathering all that crap. At this point, he must have known that all his work would be lost when the City hauls it all off. Which he must know will happen. Yet he worked hard in the sun while I was lazy. I won’t even ride a uni in the shade here until after 7, to much work for me. Yet Father worked hard in the sun all day, then slept in a dirty hot van with no fans. He worked so hard at his pack ratting.

I agree with Mike about this post, that we should not be our things.

Pack rats are different though. They know they won’t use what they collect, they seem compulsed to collect it anyway. They are even harder to change than a Mormon (or if you are Mormon, imagine trying to convert a J witness ).

Pack rats have a strong collectors instinct, while lacking the cleaner instinct. At a very emotional level, they cannot bear the pain of tossing a “good” thing. Which is anything that makes them feel good to collect. I wouldn’t call it a mental illness exactly, because other then his life style insanity, Father of junk was by all appearances sane.

I knew another pack rat, Arnold. He sank a 30 foot boat by piling it high with such useful stuff as baby carriages (for an old single guy?), and lawn mowers. I gave him a jump once, and was totally stunned at how flat the tires on his truck was. Always helpful, I pointed out his tires need air but he insisted he checks the pressure every day !

This mystery was resolved then he opened the hood for my jumpers. He had built wooden shelves inside the engine compartment, and filled them with batteries. Like 10 or 15 lead batteries. When I asked him why he had so many dead batteries there he said because he didn’t have room in the back for anymore. I would have looked, but I trusted him.

3

Clinically it’s called Hoarding, and it’s a full-on mental illness. You know someone has it bad, when their house is described using the word “paths”.

I’ve known a few hoarders. Scary. Being a pack rat is probably a lesser version of the same illness, and I know a lot more people who suffer from that. Maybe myself to a degree, though living in houses without basements sure helps. And being married! :slight_smile:

4

There’s a thing called Diogenes syndrome. It usually affects older people, and they lose all sense of personal cleanliness and wellbeing and live in complete squalour. Thye may be surrounded by luxury goods, but make no effort to look after them.

The gentleman I met was well spoken and intelligent. He was from a good family, and was quite well off financially. He lived in a bungalow full of antiques and newspapers. The antiques would have been worth a fortune, except that he had allowed the house to become damp, and had not dusted or polished for years. The newspapers were piled around the house leaving a network of narrow paths.

The man himself dressed in old clothes and fingerless gloves, wearing a coat indoors to save on heating bills. He had a perpetual cold.

Eventually, the newspapers caught fire, presumably from an electric heater, and the building was destroyed and the man died.

Diogenes was the first Cynic philosopher, and lived a life without possessions or artificial social graces. It is strange that his name should have become attached to a syndrome in which people tend to collect possession.

5

Diogenes also wandered around with a lamp.

Looking for a particular type of man.

6

OMG! Get help, lad!

Find it on aedpinstitute.com

7

Better than looking for an unparticular sort of man. You know what those Greeks were like.

Or were you thinking of Florence Nightingale?

8

An honest man. They are sadly scarce.

9

You CAN take it with you.

I’m not sure why you would want to, but I’m sure you could arrange a mass burial/cremation of all your stuff.

Maybe the process of accumulating all that junk was the most enjoyable thing for that lady to be doing? You don’t know her.
Maybe, to her, shopping WAS living.

10

would one lie disqualify you?

11

It’s like gambling, but you win a prize everytime!

I’d bet the same neurotransmitters are involved.

The woman’s an addict. Addicts need help. This is what I’ve learned from watching ABC after-school specials.

So… do we help her shop?

12

Any deception is dishonesty.

13

you’ve heard the saying: “one swallow does not make a summer”

14

Yay!

If only to help with your addiction to shopping for dead people, yes.

15

The way I’ve heard it was: “one swallow does not make one a porn star”

16

A lot of Greek philosophy from that period was about trying (and failing) to establish absolutes and “perfect definitions” so according to the rules of the game, one lie would disqualify you.