I helped my dad move this past weekend. It seems the end of May always brings about many moves, as the college students head home or at least out of the dorms for the summer. No matter who moves or where they're moving to, I can't help but to remember a quote from the movie Fight Club. .
For those of you who have not seen this masterpiece of cinema, or even better read the book, Tyler Durden, played by Edward Norton, is tormented by his alter-ego, played by Brad Pitt. At one point in the movie, Durden's alter-ego creates a gas leak in his apartment which sets it ablaze and destroys everything that, he claims, makes him who he is. Later, Durden is venting with his 'other half' over a pichter of beer about his Pier 1, catalog-ordered-life being ripped out from underneath him. Pitt's reply:
"The things you own, end up owning you."
After you've spent days, or weeks even, putting 'your life' into boxes, moving it to a new location so you can unload 'your life' to start a new life in a new location, how can you disagree with that statement? I'm not saying that my father or the friends I've helped move recently are all pack rats with a bunch of junk. Really, it's an American epidemic. We want more and more because we feel it adds to our prestige or that it defines us. Perhaps some of you reading this do define yourself by what you own, and to an extent, I can see where one could make that argument.
I'm a musician, as are many of my friends. Around the music department at my university this conversation isn't an uncommon one:
Hey do you know blah-blah?"
"Ummm blah-blah doesn't sounds familiar"
"You know, blah-blah the cello player."
"Ohhh right, him".
A good friend of mine is currently studying for his masters in oboe performance, and another percussion performance. For these people they may define themselves by their possession. However, if I had to categorize it, I'd say it's a tool. They define themselves by a tool used for their craft. The same as an astronomer may hold tight to her telescope, a writer to her pen...or laptop, a carpenter to his saw or hammer, or a priest to his bible. This kind of obsessive possesion I can handle.
Other material worths, I feel, can also define you. What you wear says a lot as a first impression. However, I also feel you can dress one fashion and act in a completely different manner than that of what your wardrobe portrays. For example, I've met some amazingly friendly goth people, but when you walk past them and make eye contact, they look like they are ready to bite your jugular.
Jewelry or art you have in your home can also define you, as can your car, your home itself, your....wait, ok, so almost any material thing can help people know who you are. So what am I getting at?
For me, I guess, I want to be someone who is defined by me. I want to be perfectly happy with just a backpack and it's contents as my possessions. The 'American Dream' as it is called is far from my dream. The white picket fence with a huge house full of pointless consumer products, not for me. How can I keep this in check? Just ask, "does what I own, own me?" Right now, sadly it does...
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