Alyice on March 31st, 2010

Echo Challenge Collection

“I collect human relationships
very much the way others collect fine art.”
– Jerzy Kosinski

It’s echo time! This time the prompt is “Collection”. My grandmother was a collector of things, my mother was a collector of things, but I was not a collector, or so I thought.

My maternal grandmother collected simply for the sake of hoarding. Her home was filled to the brim with unopened boxes—boxes that made her home look like a warehouse, boxes that could have made fun hiding places if we’d only been given the opportunity to walk through her front door.

My mother was a hoarder, too. She packed her home from one end to the other with things that always came before her relationships. Things that needed cleaning, rearranging, storing, and moving. Things that always moved from one room to the next only to find their way into a box, in the garage, and back out again.

I, however, was neither of them. I was not a hoarder.

I didn’t like to be controlled by things. I didn’t like the idea of worrying about leaving my things alone for fear that someone would stop by and take them away. I didn’t put a higher value on “things”. I didn’t value things more than I valued “people” or “relationships”. And therefore, if I wasn’t a hoarder. I was not a collector.

But I was mistaken. Though not a hoarder, I did have a healthy obsession with three things: books, movies, and shot glasses.

As a young child, I was a shy girl. I spent most of my time daydreaming about what it would be like to find Prince Charming, or at least the modern day version of him. And I dreamed about what it would be like to be so filled with self-confidence that nothing was too scary for me to tackle. I dreamt about having a lot of money and using it to transform the lives of others. And I dreamt about seeing the world—of traveling to far off places, of meeting new people, and of forming many “Lucy and Ethel” relationships.

Sometimes, however, I didn’t daydream. I picked up a book or watched a movie instead. And I lived vicariously through my beloved storybook characters or the characters on the television screen. I could care less who the writer was or which actor was playing which part—it was the characters that transported me from my reality into theirs.

So it was only natural that as a young adult, I’d start collecting both books and movies. I just didn’t realize how crazy of a collector I was until we had to transport 100+ boxes of books and movies from one state to the next. After my second state-to-state move I realized it was time to let go. I’d never go back and read many of those books, and I had outgrown and became weary of certain films. So I packed up nearly two-thirds of my collection and donated them to a few worthy causes.

I still collect, but I’ve learned to be more selective. A lesson I learned from my daughter. She is very selective when it comes to the books and videos she buys. And for now, it’s only good fantasy books; especially those that have been turned into marvelous films like Peter Pan, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles Of Narnia.

Another obsession of mine is collecting shot glasses.

It all started when my honorary Aunt Sue would take me with her antique shopping as a young girl. She’d find the prettiest things: doorknobs, cabinet handles, furniture, postcards, lace, and stunning glass containers.

I loved those glass containers and have had an infatuation with old glass ever since. But as a young girl, who still lived at home, and shared a room with a very sloppy younger sister, I knew bringing such beauty home would be insane so I just looked and coveted.

Then I spotted them. Shot glasses. They were perfect! They were affordable, they took up very little room, they came in various shapes and colors, and they contained history. Now, when I went shopping with my Aunt, I had something to be excited about, too.

Everyone got a kick out my collection. They couldn’t understand why I, a young girl who didn’t drink—and still doesn’t—would ever be interested in collecting shot glasses.

When I became a young adult, I stopped collecting shot glasses. It just wasn’t the same; collecting them without my aunt. Then one day my honorary grandfather gave me a gift—a shot glass from Russia—and I was hooked all over again.

I collected for a few more years after that, even had my new husband gifting me with a few shot glasses. But then we moved into a rental that had no space for such a collection, and it got packed away; a faded memory that longed to be placed back on a shelf some day.

This past summer, after taking many trips to Rapid City to visit my now college bound son, my husband started my collection back up again. “After all,” he’d say, “new memories are being made.”

So yes, I am a collector of things. And I thank God that I am not a hoarder who values those things more than I value the relationships He has so graciously bestowed upon me.

Until next time…

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AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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