Pathology or hobby?

[John Foust]

At 08:17 PM 5/14/2005, Tom Jennings wrote:
>It's cause for serious personal reflection -- are you a packrat 
>or a collector?  Packrat syndrome is serious, the cliche is a 
>house filled with bundled newspapers and magazines stacked to 
>the ceiling, that falls on the elderly 'rat, killing them, etc.
>I know someone else with packrat-itis. I suspect it's rampant 
>in this list.

I'm confident it's rampant on this list.  Sellam said "A collector 
collects.  A packrat accumulates."  There's plenty of room for 
semantics here.  So where's the fine line between collecting 
whatever you can get your hands on, and packrat-ism?  It's slippery 
slope, starting with one of something, then more for spare parts.
For some, the only upper bound is available space.

I could write a book on it.  Many other people have.  There are
many motivations, many potential causes and behaviors and beliefs
that perpetuate it.  I'm all for a libertarian view of life that
lets people live in their parent's basement and collect old 
computers, but on the other hand there's also room for advice
about what makes life worth living, and how an excess of possessions
can overwhelm your life.  There is a cost to collecting / accumulating,
even if the computers are free.

- John