16 May
2005
16 May
'05
12:06 p.m.
On Sun, 15 May 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:
And if you hadn't accumulated it to give away to
other people more
interested, it would have all ended up in the dumpster at the point just
before when you supposedly 'packratted' it.
Sometimes one gets the idea here that if you don't mount each item on a
piece of walnut with a brass plaque labeling it, you're just piling up
junk.
Lord, how I wish I had kept ('packratted' to use that dirty word) some
of the computer-related things in the past I've had that I apparently
wasn't "collecting" back at that point in time.
What you, I, Don, or anyone does with their pile of stuff is none
of anyone's business. Really -- altruistic archiving or selfish
hoarding, if you obtained it in a legal manner it's no one's
business, period... though of course we're allowed our own
opinions of you/me :-)
The only larger point I mean to make is: whatever you're doing, do
it on purpose. I'm not a collector by any means; I don't think
collecting is a higher calling. Archiving, like Al Kossow does, is
a demonstrable positive value to the culture at large; few of us
actually do that, it's work. Collecting one each of the
motorcycles on the cover of 1971's CYCLE WORLD for no reason than
personal satisfaction (or obsession) is fine (I know someone who
did this). It's all fine, personal and NOMDB(1).
But gathering together a large number of rare, desirable items
(however subjective) into one place without a will or letter of
intent is not "archiving". In fact it's the opposite -- items were
taken out of circulation probably permanently.
Actions matter, intent ain't shit the next day.
Someone else can have the last word.
(1) None Of My Damn Business.