A Bereavement of Things

T Minus 3

Looking out through the water splashed glass at a towel I will use twice more; at a dressing gown I’ll not be able to take I stood in the shower composing the start of this blog. Yesterday was reasonably successful, but I always factored in two days of work. We ditched a whole load more and are basically decided as to what is going and what is not. The challenge of packing it all in to our combined luggage and hand luggage amounts will probably cull some more but we’re there. So I gazed out through the glass thinking of the things that are or soon will be gone. In this case (let’s face it) bits of cloth. Nonetheless I like my dressing gown and the towels are soft – we’ve had them a long time. But they’re bits of cloth.
We’ve thrown lots of bits of cloth and wood and metal and plastic in recent months and sold and given away other bits. There is a bereavement of things;as we part with things we part with the memories associated with them. In a sense this can be harder than leaving people as we will keep contact. However, in the end they are still bits of cloth etc.
Why do we gather do much around us? In the bible there is a passage that looks at the whole subject of posessions.

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. (‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭19-21‬ MSG)

Whatever your faith or belief (faith or no faith) there is a truth in this, echoed by the popular phrase

You can’t take it with you

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Our lives in the West are spent gathering possessions – things to make life easier, better or just prettier. In the end they’re just bits of cloth, wood, metal and plastic.
We are having to give up a lot but we are going to a place where people generally have a lot less. Is there the same possessiveness over their belongings? I doubt it.