Ephemera
I'm a history person not just in my interests and my background but deep in my fungal soul. A collect and categorise and archive and ponder sort of person. Which creates a bit of tension. That sort of Victorian gentleman's cabinet of curiosities aesthetic when Victorian gentlemen would despise me and everything I stand for. As I despise them and everything they stand for!
There's also the serenity of minimalism and non-attachment, which I do find very soothing and tempting.
I think about all my old stuff, sometimes. That is gone, blown away in the breeze. I think about what I could do with it now. Books and papers and collections that I got rid of, or lost. I'm not sad about it. I just think about it. And so much of it was practical - renting tiny flats and moving every few years was a constant exercise in getting rid of stuff.
This might all be prompted by looking at advertising and ephemera collections. Mostly the John Johnson Collection. A vast collection. I'd happily spend my life sorting through something like this. Fascinating. Every so often I fantasise about doing a Master's in museum studies or heritage or digital archiving.
All my grandparents left fascinating (if overwhelming) collections of paperwork and personal effects. What have I got? Their stuff, I guess. Probably my blog is a collection of ephemera. My bookmarks and browsing history. Which makes me think more about how I want this site to be, what it should do.
Kami posted the title we traded: handles, profiles, selves and I really enjoyed reading it! Very similar to my thoughts, what I would have written. My trade was Internet privacy and 'having nothing to hide'.