Even though it is Tuesday, I have just gotten around to reading the Sunday New York Times. It wasn't delivered on Sunday and after I waited until noon in case it was simply late, I went out and bought a copy but I had somewhere to go and therefore, no time to read it.
Among all the interesting articles, one actually stirred a bit of anger that has been building over time, in regard to the new aesthetic in home furnishing. The article was called "When the antiques have to go." It was about "staging a place" for sale. The point was that antiques are no longer in style and the 'new' look is open, spare, and bright light. I, personally, do not care for the new style at all. It looks as though it belong in a desert land of heat and dust and transience. It looks cold and has no trace of the personality of the inhabitant.
Everyone who visits antique stores knows that the fondness for vintage and antique that was in vogue for so long, is over. Antique shops are closing up. Articles on "The kids don't want your old stuff" abound and there is even the "Death Cleaning" movement resulting from a best seller by a Swedish author. Apparently it is a custom to clear out everything before you die to spare the kids the effort.
I love 'stuff' and I am passionate about books. I can understand if a reader spends most of her/his time with the fast read popular novels of Tom Clancy or Janet Ivanovich, you may not want to hold on to them because after all, you already know how it turned out. But I have books that have been like friends, books that have been resources upon which i have drawn many times over the years. I have book shelves. I have books on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, New Jersey History, to name just a few subjects, and I have books on philosophy and religion to which I have returned over and over again. It seems to me the disdain for books as 'clutter' goes along with a new disdain for knowledge and education, a resentment towards 'elites.'
I also read a column about a rural town refusing to give the librarian a raise because most of the people in the county get by on $10 to $13 an hour. Even though she had a masters degree the opinion was that such a high degree wasn't needed for something so easy as running a library. And they lament that the young are leaving to go to cities. No wonder. They even considered letting the library close because, after all, they didn't need it or use it!
My daughter and I have already talked about my intention to not clear out every evidence of my life and my interests before I die. I am not erasing myself. And my home is a reflection of my many interest in art, history, literature, and my conservation of the many family heirlooms that have no financial value but, HOLY COW, they belonged to our ancestors! No one wanted them so I took them in, one by one, GreatGrandmother's sewing machine with which she supported herself and her family, for example.
It is as if history itself has become considered clutter. And knowledge is clutter. Keep the mind empty and transient like those pale, cold, uncomfortable rooms.
Antiques speak of the past and the people who lived and how they lived. All I can do is hope that this trend, like so many others, will reverse and people will once again begin to value family history, objects from the past that have endured through the coming and going trends, and most of all, BOOKS and KNOWLEDGE!
Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
wrightj45Wyahoo.com
By the way, perhaps the children will be helped in their grieving if they go through the things you leave behind. And if they are so whiny, maybe they can consider the money you have left them as a salary for the home clearing they have to do instead of just getting money because they are entitled to it as your offspring. Earn it!
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