How is it that we accumulate things that we never let go of? After all, we don’t start out with a lot of things but it inevitably seems that we finish up with a great many things. Traveling through life with lots of ‘stuff’ can be fun, no doubt, but it can also be a wrenching experience when it comes time to get rid of that favorite Yamaha acoustic guitar, for example.

That guitar is a good example of this phenomenon, by the way. Maybe we were convinced by some music store clerk that we were going to be a folk rock superstar or somebody like James Taylor, perhaps. And though we could never learn to make even the first chord in one of his songs, we still can’t bring ourselves to give it away or sit down and force ourselves to take a few music lessons.

A guitar — whether acoustic or electric — however, is kind of cool looking. One can’t say the same thing about a couple of wet dry vacuums, though. For sure, there’s bound to be someone out there who has collected a couple of them and now has them occupying a place of pride (or some musty, dusty corner) in a garage or basement somewhere on this planet. That fact can be taken to the bank.

Maybe the vacuums were going to be a part of some new restoration business the person who bought them was going to start up but soon abandoned when he found out it was actually real work. Or maybe they were going to be used to clean up wet floors in the house. Regardless, the truth is they haven’t been used in years and they’re a part of our life that we hope never to see again, even in a rerun.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt is probably the best thing to do when it comes to their ‘stuff.’ Maybe these items bring back fond or pleasant memories of events gone by, though it would be hard to imagine why a busted tennis racket — which got that way deliberately — might bring back anything but the former anger that led to it getting busted. Or maybe we were imitating John McEnroe; who knows?

And let’s not get started on the children’s things. At one time cherry baby furniture was probably all the rage among the infant set (the kids, not the infantile parents) but it now should probably occupy a place in someone else’s home, giving some other infant or child just a bit of pleasure. What’s for sure is that the kids who wants needed it are graduated from college now, right?

In truth, the question ‘Are we ever able to let go of ‘stuff?’ will probably never be fully answered and is likely to remain a great mystery to many of us. Maybe getting rid of all of that junk is just too difficult or perhaps there’s so much nostalgia wrapped up in it that it’s impossible to let go. For sure, that stuff is likely to bring back memories even when we’re well into our Social Security years.

Mental Health