I realized yesterday that while I did start out at a young age as a collector of various things, at some point I became a hoarder. Having a variety of things from the same genre is fine, but I crossed a line somewhere many years ago and ended up with many of the same things from the same genre.

Useful things, like picture frames or magnets, fine. Small, and easily put to use. That's OK.

But when I started having so many CDs that I couldn't keep track of titles that I already owned? Not OK.

Cameras? I have at least a dozen. Each one a different shape or film type, or era. OK.

When I noticed that I had purchased the same set of notecards twice, with out ever opening or using the first set. Not OK.

My Godzilla collection? You KNOW that's OK.



Anyway, I have been looking through boxes of my crap and finding various things I forgot that I had, and wondering why I had amassed such collections of things. I realized it was fear.

Fear of loss is powerful and can cause us to do lots of things. Hoarding is a mild response to fear of loss, at least in most cases. I moved four times before the age of five, lost both of my grandfathers by the age of eight, and had various school friends who moved or died by the time I was 19. Everyone has these experiences, and everyone deals with things differently. I think I started hoarding at a fairly young age in response to my fear of loss.

I'm glad I figured that out, because I'll be moving again this summer, and it'll be a lot easier this time if I can let go of more of this crap I've been hanging on to for so long.

MOTORCYCLE UPDATE

The title is in the mail, on it's way back to me so I can figure out how to transfer it to my name. I was looking around online for cheap and used parts, and I found a headlight visor on eBay for a few bucks. I like the way it mimics the front fender.


I also found a used set of clubman handlebars, to give the lowered profile I'm looking for, but I need to devote more time to that project as it will require removal and repositioning of the brakeline/master cylinder and all of the other assorted wiring on the grips.

I am considering painting the tank and side covers, and I think I might leave the tank on to do it. Eventually, I may be willing and able to PAY for a real paint job. I love Minnesota and the U of M but that maroon and gold stuff has got to go!

This motorcycle project will soon have it's own page here on the site, and I'll probably make it it's own blog so that it'll be easy to post pictures and updates. Slowly, surely, someday, I might even RIDE the thing. Maybe.

I checked out "The Motorcycle Diaries" by Ernesto "Che" Guevara from the local library. It is an interesting read, from an early part of Che's life, but there are things you don't expect to encounter like:

Easter Island! Our imaginations soar, then stop and circle around: 'Over there, having a white "boyfriend" is an honour'; 'You don't have to work, the women do everything - you just eat, sleep and keep them happy.' This wonderful place where the weather is ideal, the women ideal, the food ideal, the work ideal (in its blissful non-existence). Who cares if we stay there a year, who cares about studying, work, family, etc.? In a shop window and enormous lobster winks at us, and from his bed of lettuce his whole body tells us, 'I'm from Easter Island, where the weather is ideal, the women ideal...'

So, this IS the early '50s, and this IS in South America, but it gives you a different look at a young Che, and for anyone who really wants to know anything more about him than what color "his" t-shirts come in, I recommend it.

The motorcyle he used was a Norton 500.

Oh, and Val told me Robert Redford is making a movie based on the book. Should be interesting.