Years ago, when I was single and working full time in an office, I had a smiley face collection. It started out innocently enough, with a poster of various smiley faces that I hung in my cubical to brighten things up and lighten the mood of the office. It was all downhill from there.
Once that poster went up, people started giving me things with smiley faces for my desk. I had a smiley face mug, a paper weight that dripped red and blue liquid over smiley face wheels like a water mill, a smiley face pillow, a smiley face squeeze ball, smiley face pencils and pens, and even a smiley face golf ball a co-worker wrested from his five-year-old son; the boy found it near his home. For my 30th birthday, I was presented with 30 smiley-faced mylar balloons that poked out of the top of my cubical.
The only smiley faced thing I had ever purchased was that original poster. Until later, when caught up in the expectation, I started buying more smiley face stuff, such as smiley face stickers to put on office communications and personal letters, a smiley face scrunchy (80s, anyone?) and anything remotely tacky and smiley-faced.
The lesson here is how quickly collections can get out of control. I didn’t really own that smiley face collection, it owned me. I felt almost obligated to keep it and grow it. I wasn’t even sure that I liked smiley faces anymore.
There are two lessons here. Most people collect something, and tastes change. That is why it is so important to continually take a critical eye to anything that you have managed to collect. Does your collection consistently make you happy? Do you find it beautiful? Maybe you are just keeping it out of habit. Even if you love your collection, take the time to go through all of the items it consists of, removing duplicates or the items that are less than worthy of being in the set.
As for my smiley face collection? It is gone, with one exception: that paperweight. My kids find it fascinating to watch.
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