Visitors to my flat sometimes laugh at the various collections that are on display in this place. One recent guest observed to my flatmate, "He's really into color, isn't he?" But many, many more of my obsessions are not visible to the casual observer, because they remain sequestered in boxes stacked in my closets and laundry room.
There are coins, bottle caps, baseball cards, hockey cards, stamps, foreign money, various documents, books, posters, buttons, stones, shells, magazines, T-shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, IPO prospectuses, business cards, stationary pads, and so many slips of paper from here and there all over the world.
If only the Internet, and blogs, existed back in 1969, when I got started with my journaling. I have physical journals going back 38 years, with things taped inside them and words written in ink. Even if I devoted myself to the task, I could never read all of those words I have written over the decades before I die.
When I search for specific items, like funny quotes from my kids when they were young, I can find them. But, lost to me are all the details of my own history as an adult on this planet. I hope someone else, maybe one of my kids, find these old, hand-written journals useful.
Meanwhile, thanks to technology, since early April 2006, my journaling has migrated here, on the web. I can only hope these digital posts get preserved, because I have been pouring my heart out in this space, and I only have copies of a few of my posts.
As a collector, I feel I am no more than a typical human. Here are a few of the things lying around my flat tonight, including several with my kids...
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