🚀 go-pugleaf

<hchickpea@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:451b19f5.29416145@news.earthlink.net...
> "Larisa" <purple_bovine@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>Melissa wrote:
>>> <bearclaw@cruller.invalid> wrote in message
>>> news:bearclaw-D8C5F6.12055624092006@news.supernews.com...
>>> > Ever wonder who's buying all the crap that's for sale on eBay?
>>> >
>>> > <http://www.badjason.com/RegularArticles/Crazy%20eBay%20mom.htm>
>>> >
>>> > Warning: while amazing, this is some pretty sad stuff.
>>>
>>> And it has been around the web for at least 2 years. I first saw it on 
>>> The
>>> Awful Forums.
>>>
>>> Melissa
>>
>>I had kind of a disgusted reaction to this - not to the mother, but to
>>the daughter.  Yeah, the mother is crazy - but the daughter is
>>mean-spirited in putting all that on display, and that's worse than any
>>kind of crazy, in my book.  From the website, it looks like she moved
>>back in with her mother as an adult - surely one shouldn't bite the
>>hand that shelters you, however messy the shelter may be?
>>
>>Though I do have to admit to a strange compulsion to straighten up my
>>dorm room after seeing that site.
>>
>>LM (alphabetizing my textbooks...)
>
> Interesting reaction.  I think of it more as a cry for help.  DW had a
> similar reaction to yours.
>
> Oddly enough, I've seen a number of homes that have similar problems.
> One fellow I was interviewing for a historical paper had tons of boxes
> in his house, and was obviously embarrassed by them, but it simply
> wasn't an issue for me.  He was erudite had valuable life experiences
> that needed to be documented for future generations.  His choice of
> lifestyle didn't mean a tinker's dam to me.  I was overjoyed to see
> that my talking with him had the side effect of bringing him a little
> out of the shell he had built around himself, and that he was soon
> writing some of his experiences to the local historical society.  All
> of us have our own issues, and making too much of them does a
> disservice to us and others.

I recall someone saying that he was more impressed with a professor's office 
that was messy and overflowing with books and papers than with one that was 
neat and tidy.  It reassured him that this individual was 'into' his subject 
and all else was superfluous.  That sort of made sense to me.  But this is a 
case of accumulating 'things' and boxes that were never even opened.  This 
is quite a different thing than someone who is absorbed by subject matter.

STB