Day One hundred and one - The Siren of The Woods

I need to take a break from the regular programming, so to speak. Today I found that a guy with whom I've been working for the past ten years unexpectedly passed away. Now, this guy was never someone I really actually got to know, I think we might have talked no more than a handful of times, and only for work related reasons. But he was a face I saw daily for years, and hisn unmistakeable voice could always be heard in the office. He wasn't, I think, that much older than me - I'm turning 47 in a few months, I think he was 50. This, coupled with the passing of an artist whose books I enjoyed, have made me question a lot of things lately. Well, not really that lately, I guess. For maybe a couple of months now I've been at odds with a very big part of me - my materialistic side. Now, I've always loved physical things. That will never change. And adding to that is how much I've always collecting things. Not like a hoarder, not ny any means, but I'm often so fascinated by something that I won't rest until I have everything I want. What happens then is that I eventually fall out of love with that particular thing, or just become desinterested in collecting whatever, but soon enough I'll find something new. And, above all, there are two things I've always loved buying - books and records. I've sold off pretty much every single comic book I ever bought - only a handful remain, and even those I'm trying to get rid off. But other than that, I've amassed a library that boasts hundreds and hundreds of books.

Well, I say boasts, but the past tense is rather more apt. Boasted. About a year I did a huge purge on my library : one day I found msyelf staring at my bookshelves and looking at row upon row upon row of books that I'd never read, and honestly? Maybe I wouldn't ever read. There were also many other books that I'd read times enough in the past that I knew I'd hardly ever want to read them again. So, with those gone, I thought I'd whittled my library down to just what was important to me. But even those I've been letting go of late. And not just the books : I acrued a metric ton of merchandise, both from bands or from comics, and I've been putting them for sale. I have much of my loot for sale, in fact. I've gotten rid of dozens of books, CDs I'd never play again, action figures that meant little to me, you name it. I don't  do this out of necessity, no. I'm doing it because as I ponder just how transient our life is, why do I accumulate so much? I know that if something happens tome, then my son gets everything, but he'll have no interest in any of this shit, I don't think. And yet... I'm already buying more things again. I'm already fascinated by somethhing new, something I foresee I'll really be going down that rabbit hole.