Knickknack: Soulfly? Soulless? The zen of garage sales
Originally ran Tuesday, May 12, 1992by Jordan Kagermeier
Issue date: 9/10/09
Section: Reporter Rewind
I have to admit it. I have more junk than any other person I know give or take a few people.
I can't remember a time when I wasn't collecting something and even until this day I've accumulated so much stuff that most of it is in storage (like my sizable medical quackery collection). There's just not enough room to keep it all.
Why? What would drive a person to purchase so much and then keep it all on top of it? If I knew the answers to this I wouldn't have to have so much space around me - my God!
I just remembered that I had to rent a two-bedroom apartment in St. Paul a year and a half ago because I needed that much room to keep all my junk.
No, I think I have an answer. Garage sales - yes, God Almighty I've seen the light.
There's nothing like a garage sale for the avid collector of junk - it's a fix, a necessity to buy a tapestry of Jesus for 25 cents or the once in a lifetime shot at owning a concrete lawn ornament of the Buddha.
Despite offhand comments about religion, there is something extremely spiritual about the experience of garage sales. I have developed a theory I'd like to share with you now - this is my theory about the reincarnation of the knickknack.
When someone buys a knickknack, let's for convenience sake say it's a thermometer someone bought at Mt. Rushmore, they attached a certain feeling toward it. This feeling is one of journey remembrance fulfilled through the purchase of a memento.
After a certain amount of time the preciousness of the knickknack decreases. Eventually it dies out altogether.
In a fleeting attempt to recoup losses over a thermometer bought at the Mt. Rushmore gift store, the owner tries to entice someone else with the prospect of owning that particular thermometer. They attempt to entice through the method of the garage sale.
You see, for the original owner of the thermometer, the soul of the knickknack has died. What is needed for the knickknack at this point is a re-birth, a spiritual recycling so to speak. This is what the garage sale facilitates so successfully.
I can't remember a time when I wasn't collecting something and even until this day I've accumulated so much stuff that most of it is in storage (like my sizable medical quackery collection). There's just not enough room to keep it all.
Why? What would drive a person to purchase so much and then keep it all on top of it? If I knew the answers to this I wouldn't have to have so much space around me - my God!
I just remembered that I had to rent a two-bedroom apartment in St. Paul a year and a half ago because I needed that much room to keep all my junk.
No, I think I have an answer. Garage sales - yes, God Almighty I've seen the light.
There's nothing like a garage sale for the avid collector of junk - it's a fix, a necessity to buy a tapestry of Jesus for 25 cents or the once in a lifetime shot at owning a concrete lawn ornament of the Buddha.
Despite offhand comments about religion, there is something extremely spiritual about the experience of garage sales. I have developed a theory I'd like to share with you now - this is my theory about the reincarnation of the knickknack.
When someone buys a knickknack, let's for convenience sake say it's a thermometer someone bought at Mt. Rushmore, they attached a certain feeling toward it. This feeling is one of journey remembrance fulfilled through the purchase of a memento.
After a certain amount of time the preciousness of the knickknack decreases. Eventually it dies out altogether.
In a fleeting attempt to recoup losses over a thermometer bought at the Mt. Rushmore gift store, the owner tries to entice someone else with the prospect of owning that particular thermometer. They attempt to entice through the method of the garage sale.
You see, for the original owner of the thermometer, the soul of the knickknack has died. What is needed for the knickknack at this point is a re-birth, a spiritual recycling so to speak. This is what the garage sale facilitates so successfully.
Be the first to comment on this story