Hoarders

Videos of bulldozers moving tons of material away from the homes of hoarders can be viewed on news outlets every once in a while.  I've always found it hard to understand and I'm guilty of judgement.  But that's another posting altogether.

Hoarder's Disorder is actually a disease.  It can be dangerous and it's certainly sad.

Lately, I've been thinking that I too have this tendency.  In case you're wondering, I do not have tunnels and paths built around old magazines, newspapers and other materials and possessions throughout my condo.

My first choice for the repository of materials is called Outlook.  Excel serves well as the alternate reservoir.



There's a lot of smart people out there and I truly look forward to some of my email subscriptions. I am frequently overwhelmed with their insightful messages. To me, some of these articles and videos are inspirational and even life-changing.

Excel makes it easy to be organized and I like organized. (Hmm, an organized hoarder.  Well, they have to be organized in order to build all those paths and tunnels, right?)

And then I file.  Outlook folders.  Excel folders.  So many folders.  So many files. All that information.  All those notes.  All of it available on my hard drive because I just know that I will come back to these snippets of guidance again and again.

I don't.

This all comes to mind because I did my monthly "Complete Back-up" over the weekend.  It takes hours.  I began wondering, "Just what IS all of this data that I back-up and save." Gigabytes of data waiting for review and absorption.  Waiting for a "second" look that never comes.

When reading the Mayo's article regarding this disorder, I am confident that I am asymptomatic (except for the one where hoarders don't recognize the symptoms), and thus absolved of requiring medical / psychological attention.  Really!

But, I have found that there is a newly defined condition called Digital Hoarding.  I'm just not ready to admit this diagnosis - publicly.  All I'm trying to do is . . .

let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.  

Proverbs 1:5

At the same time, however, I think it prudent that I institute stricter policies regarding my digital libraries.  Also, I think it wise that I begin the process of reviewing existing content. The goal will be to ponder, apply and absorb followed by deletion.  

Maybe.

Prayers are appreciated.