On Letting Go

I'm a collector of stuff. Well, sort of. I'm more of a half-ass collector of stuff I think is important. Not anything like my brother, or at least how he used to be. He has hundreds upon hundreds of unopened WWF action figures from the late 90's and early 2000's stashed away in an undisclosed location, that will probably net thousands someday. That's a collector. There are people that seriously collect things, like the people who really do it for the money and the thrill of the hunt. People who spend entire chunks of their lives devoted to tracking down that rare copy of whatever it is they feel they must own. I always liked those people, and would love nothing more than to emulate them, but it requires purchasing power, as well as constant vigilance to find what is you want, weather it's a rare music album or a baseball card or even a piece of art. I can think I am special because I own the first version of Slipknot's first album that got pulled from the shelves because of a copyright violation on one of the tracks, but I'm not. (though the actual disc was stolen in the now infamous incident in late August, 2002, I still have the case...)

I am actually just a guy who buys stuff, like anyone else. My collection of CD's spans the past 18 or so years of my life, since I started buying CD's. I have only parted ways with a very, very small percentage of them. Like, we're talkin' less than 10 in my whole life. The reason is because I am a borderline hoarder, and it would be full-blown if not for my wife convincing me to let go of things in the past few years. (Still cringing at donating my wash bucket of hot wheels and matchbox cars in '09.) But now, I have a lot of CD's I don't even display in my CD rack in the spare bedroom, that I could probably part ways with. They have a few great used CD places here in town, and I think that now is the right time to start paring down the collection. Do I really need the money? Not really. I could survive, for sure. But if I'm getting rid of my prized collection of CD's, I'm going to use the money for something I really want, damn it.

So I'm gonna sell my CD's and buy Nashville Predators hockey tickets with the money. Yup, totally a good idea. All I ever do is try to scheme ways to go to Preds games, and this is a way to do just that. Hockey tickets, especially NHL hockey tickets, and especially good NHL tickets are quite pricey. If I'm going to sell off my life long collection, I'm going to use the money for something I really, really want. That's to watch hockey. It's a win-win, because my wife wants that clutter out of the house, anyway. So I'll essentially gather my semi-prized possessions, give them to the Great Escape or Grimey's, then transfer the funds into David Poile's checkbook.

Let's just hope I don't have a meltdown letting go.