Stuff!

I started my life in what might be viewed as a middle class household.  Dad was a good man who kept our family in suburbia and we never wanted for a meal or love.  We had toys, bikes, and all the stuff that keeps a young boy happy as he grew up.  We saw, and had contact with people with more stuff, and honestly, were very envious.  The envy with time turned our wants into needs, or at least we thought they were needs.  When Mary Lou and I married we had little by way of possessions, but clearly were looking at a future that would bring us plenty of stuff.  Early in our marriage, kids required  stuff, and we seemed to be able to keep up with the neighbors, and even managed to satisfy some of Mary Lou and my wants/needs.  We have four great kids, and thankfully we kept them in the necessities of life, and managed to create a taste for the luxuries that we couldn't afford.  Our house became full of stuff, then we needed more room and the basement and garage started to fill with that stuff that I am referring to.  Greater income, and having the kids on their own, meant we could start adding more stuff at a more rapid rate.  When we built our second house, storage was important becuase we needed to store the stuff.  In 2000 Mary Lou was diagnosed with cancer, and it started a long goodbye ending on March 26th, 2002.  I'm afraid that my grief over loosing her wasn't handled very well and when I chose to date, and then re-marry concerns arose over this new woman having access to mom's stuff.  To be honest, the issue got explosive, and I behaved very poorly.  As my greif subsided I began to realize that the stuff that Mary Lou and I acquired were of no real relevance as I settled in to realize that all this stuff was, just stuff!  I decided, and Valerie joined me in an effort to rid ourselves of the stuff that seemed to have become too important in both our lives.  Selling the house with all that storage meant, what are we going to do with the stuff.  Some of the stuff, I viewed as very valuable, but began to realize, nobody cared about most of the stuff, including me.  Garage sales were a painful lesson in just how worthless all the stuff was, and finally, Valerie and I decided to store some of the important stuff in storage facility near by.  After incurring over $5,000 in rental charges, and seldom even coming back to look at the "important stuff", we concluded a final give-away was necessary to clear out most of the remaining stuff.  Lest you believe we are completely free of storage, my nephew agreed to store a small trailer with the final "can't get rid of" stuff.  We now live in an RV that is 40' long, and with enough storage space that accommodates more stuff, but this is it!  Today we took a trip to St. Vincent DePaul for another step in getting rid of more, well, unnecessary stuff.

You can call this long journey in downsizing noble, necessary, good, crazy, or whatever!  We are finally "free at last", or close to it.  I want to go to my final day with some necessities, but most importantly my wife Valerie, my pictures and videos, and a place that has wheels to go and share the beauty that somehow eluded me in quest for stuff.  -- Enough