How Much Stuff Is Enough?

Another Christmas is past. Which in part means the presentation and reception of gifts. This is a very joyous time, I am now filled with cheeses, new pants, and a bookcase! I probably have two hundred books and I would like to be able to access them without rooting through several piles. However, all this gift giving and receiving results in the accumulation of stuff.

Side A of my New Tapestry

Side B of my New Tapestry

Here is a perfect example. I won't go into the backstory on this, except to say it's not a gift, and it was from a deceased relative. It is high quality, has different patterns on either side, but what am I going to do with it? The suggestion was to use on a table as a centerpiece… except I don't even own a normal table, just a coffee table.

Don't get me wrong, I accumulate more than I need and have some trouble getting rid of stuff sometimes. Although the older I get the easier it is to throw stuff away. So lest anyone think I am pointing a finger at another person, I am writing this to help me organize my own things better. So where does it end? How much is enough? I don't know, and it is different for every person. If we don't ask the question, then I feel we commit ourselves to a cycle of accumulation, and that is not the point of life, nor is it entirely healthy to form the relationships we do with inanimate objects.

I feel life is about relationships, in large part, relationships with other humans, and it is important to me to not let material things cloud that ideal, only contribute to it.