Since childhood, I've tended to anthropomorphize objects. Even though, to me, Cabbage Patch dolls are reminiscent of Chucky, I felt sorry for them while shivering in terror if their leering faces were not covered up for the night.
There was a plastic riding horse on wheels that lived forever in our garage, but I just couldn't bring myself to have it thrown out. If Ta tucked it into the garbage, I fished it out.
"To be thrown away, alone and unloved?" I would think. "I can't have it think that."
I haven't yet seen Toy Story 3, probably because that is what their fate was, and that merely reinforces in me the crippling and hoarding belief that all inanimate, factory-assembled objects have a spirit, if not a soul.
Heather O'Neill confesses that same fantasy in "The Secret Life of Our Trash Can." Even our own stories reflect a consciousness to the seemingly insentient; the moon's begrudging the sun's sky-dominance, the stones arguing beneath Yaakov's head, Har Sinai's modesty. Medrashim, you aren't helping.
The question is if such excessive "compassion" is a good or bad thing. Is it occupying valuable heart-space that should be reserved for loftier causes?
Moshe wouldn't strike the water or the dirt that had done him a good turn. Those teddy-bears comforted me many times in my carefree youth.
Even though they are terrible dust-catchers, and I have a sneaking suspicion I am allergic to such mites, they shall still occupy a place on my desk, ready and waiting for when a niece or nephew require something furry to cuddle with at night.
8 comments:
Watch Toy Story 3. Now.
I try very hard not to be a hoarder, not always successfully. I had a major clear-out last summer, for no other reason than I wanted to feel freer. That said, I still have two drawers under my bed that will have to be purged one day. And I find it almost impossible to get rid of books.
You haven't seen Toy Story 3? OMG! You MUST see Toy Story 3. Also The Lego Movie. You MUST see The Lego Movie!
"Lego Movie" faster, even though they mess with my image of Batman. I know I must see "Toy Story 3," but even "Toy Story 2" did a number on me, with Jesse lying forgotten and dusty under the bed . . . I actually think they would have been better off in the Japanese museum (ducks as tomatoes fly).
DS: No, no, you don't purge BOOKS! Books never, ever count as junk! All you need is a bookshelf and they become a classy accessory, instead of clutter.
I'm not sure my bookshelves count as "classy": I've got books piled sideways or two or three rows deep just to have somewhere to put them all. Though I keep them more for reference or re-reading than style!
(Actually, the practicalities of weeding books in a library (yes, librarians do call it "weeding") was part of my librarianship MA dissertation. It is sometimes necessary, but few librarians like doing it.)
Re: The Lego Move: I'm a big fan of Batman but I thought their presentation of him was hilarious and deserved. I barely stopped laughing through the whole film.
I went to a library book sale yesterday and I was like a kid in a candy store. For fifty cents, how could I walk away? I'll make shelf space.
I must see "The Lego Movie." Maybe I'll but it "for the kids." Yes, "for the kids" . . .
I practically live in the second-hand book sections of charity shops! Hard to resist books for £1 even if I didn't realize that I wanted them. Certainly not when I can get a three-in-one edition of Philip K. Dick novels (one of my favourite authors) for 50p. I sometimes get free books from duplicates pile at the library where I volunteer, which is even harder to resist. But my poor groaning bookshelves...
There is no such thing as too many books. EVER.
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